Kinda A Cinderella Story
by Donutsareawesome
Summary: Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, lived a beautiful little girl and her widowed father. So thats the first sentence... you can read this to find out more :)
1. The worst possible thing

So this is just like the movie, except the characters are different (obviously). hope you guys enjoy it!

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, lived a beautiful little girl and her widowed father.

_"It's beautiful..." said a little brown-haired girl, awestruck at the magical kingdom inside the snow globe. Her father held up the sparkly object in his ruff hands, chuckling at the sight of his eight year-old daughter's reaction. Up above on the ledge of a rocky mountain side, father and daughter overlooked the beautiful sight..._

Okay, it wasn't that long ago, and it wasn't really a faraway kingdom.

_...of the city._

It was the Long Island Valley and it only looked faraway because you could barely see it through all the smog. But, to me, growing up, the valley was my kingdom.

I was my dad's best friend and he was mine.

_Standing in the batter's box, a brunette girl, adorned with an way-too-big blue cap, a tee-shirt, overalls, topped with a pair of worn-out black converse, was holding her bat, waiting for the pitcher to throw the baseball. The pitcher looked at the girl, chuckling at his daughter, then tossed the ball to her. _

_CRACK! went the bat, the baseball now rolling over to the right side of the outfield. Tristan looked at his daughter and with a smile, he ran up to her and tried to give his daughter a hug. Piper, instead, ran away from her father's grasp, laughing. Seeing this, Tristan grabbed his daughter from behind and placed her on his knee, smiling and grinning at Piper's big accomplishment, Piper smiling the entire time. _

Although being raised by a man put me behind in the making of fashion departments, I never felt like I missed out on anything. I was the luckiest girl in the world.

_Driving down to his restaurant, Tristan and Piper sat in his blue mustang, driving and singing along to songs they didn't know on the radio. They didn't care of people were giving them weird looks, they were in their own world._

My dad owned the coolest diner in the whole valley, I loved hanging out there. It was the kind of place where diet was a four letter word and grease came at no additional charge. At Hearts, everyone felt like family.

_"Make a wish, princess!" exclaimed one of the waitresses, Rachel, holding out a delicious birthday cake with nine candles aflame and sticking out like sore thumbs. Piper's eyes widened at the sight, the feelings of happiness and glee flickering in her brown orbs. _

What did I need a wish for? I had amazing friends and the coolest dad.

_Piper closed her eyes and thought of a wish, her body jittering with excitement. She opened her eyes and started to blow out the candles. A lady, wearing a dress that was covered over by a cardigan, was walking past the table, where Piper's friends and the diner's employees were sitting, when she had suddenly slipped, Tristan catching her in the process. The lady's head picked up, looked at Piper's father and didn't draw her eyes away from his. Tristan was also caught up in the process as well. Piper finished blowing out the small flames, taking a look at the sight of what was standing in front of her. The old saying "love at first sight" ringing through the little girl's mind like an alarm clock that would go on for eternity, if you let it ring._

But I guess my dad thought I needed one more thing. Christina.

_A wedding had sprung, pastel colors flying all over the place. An endless amount of rice and red flower petals were thrown out in the air, wishing the newly-wedded couple safe and promising years to come. The couple barely reached the end of the red carpeting that was rolled on the steps of the cathedral. Behind them, were the addition to the family, two twin girls, dressed in pastel, both pushing each other out of their way, while a lone little girl was trailing behind, holding the bouquet of flowers needed for the bride._

Along with my new stepmother, came her twin daughters, Medea and Khione, my out-of-step sisters.

_The cameraman wanted a family shot of the entire family, the newly-weds placed in the back while the three girls stood in the front. The cameraman started counting. _

_"One!" The bride pushed the bouquet of flowers out of the small brunette's hands._

_"Two!" The brunette realized the bouquet was laying on the floor; the girl wondered when did she drop the flowers. _

_"Three!" She bent over to grab the flowers._

_"Cheese!" exclaimed the family, the flash of the camera going off. The brunette picked up the flowers and stood back up, waiting for the picture that never came. The cameraman noticed the brunette wasn't in the shot._

But as long as my dad was happy, so was I. We were going to be one big happy family.

_"One's enough" said the stepmother, Christina, smiling a smile, covered with makeup. _

Unfortunately, this was no fairytale.

**A year later...**

_The same father and daughter were now laying side to side on her small bed, reading a fairy tale book, one of the girl's favorites._

_"He took her hand and he kissed it. Then he swooped her up onto his horse and the beautiful princess and the handsome prince rode off to his castle, where they lived happily", tickling his daughter, said girl chuckling at the tickles "ever after."_

_"Do fairy tales come true dad?" asked Piper._

_"Well, no. But dreams come true."_

_"Do you have a dream?" she questioned._

_"Well, yeah. My dream is that you'll grow up and go to college and then maybe someday you'll build your own castle."_

_The girl put on a thoughtful face, then asked "Where do princesses go to college?"_

_"Uhh," Tristan scrunched his face, "they go, umm, where the princes go. They go to Princeton. But Piper, ya know, fairy tales aren't just about finding handsome princes. They're about fulfilling your dreams and about standing up for what you believe in. Just like I always say, never let the fear of striking out-" "keep you from playing the game.", interrupted Piper, smiling at her father's quote. _

_"That's right!"_

_Piper giggled at her father's reaction._

_"And just remember, if you look carefully, this book contains important things that you may need to know later in life." Tristan closed the book resting upon his lap. He then kissed his daughter's forehead, Piper smiling all the while._

_The sudden sound of everything shaking in Piper's bedroom stopped both of them. "Earthquake!" shouted Tristan, jumping off the bed in a hurry, helping his daughter up. _

My kingdom came crumbling down the day the Long Island earthquake struck the valley.

_"Help! Help!" yelled Christina from downstairs._

_Tristan sprinted from his spot, reaching the doorway, "Don't go!" yelled Piper, afraid for her dad, her hand reaching out to grab his._

_"I'll be right back!" he exclaimed, trying to reassure his daughter. He then vanished from her sight, her eyes filled with a sea of worries. She then turned her head to her bedroom, which was crumbling and shaking from the 'quake. The glittery snow globe vibrated off the table, where it soon came tumbling down from the bedside table to the hardwood floors, crashing and cracking each piece of glass, shattering into a million pieces._

_A girl stood on a baseball field, standing on the pitcher's mound and watching the black birds fly high up in the air. Kicking the dirt, she sighed._

I lost my best friend that day. And from then on, the only fairy tales in my life were the ones I read about in books.

_Piper kicked the dirt some more, sadly looking up to find a father and daughter pass the field, laughing and talking like they were the best of friends. Piper couldn't stand the sight and walked away, far away from the sight that didn't fit her mood at all._

Since my father didn't leave a will, my stepmother got everything. The house, the diner.

And, to her dismay, me.

_Later, when Piper arrived home, Christina patiently waited for the girl, saw her depressed face, and immediately ordered her to pack all of her belongings and bring them up in the attic, her new bedroom for life. Piper quietly agreed, Medea and Khione following the depressed girl, who trudged up the stairway. They giggled at her, Piper ignored them, they usually did this. Wasn't much of a big deal, though. She had finally reached her room, full of precious memories that soon haunted her of dad. Medea left after the "fun" had ended, She looked at Piper, giggled a not-so-sweet giggle, then ran back down the stairs, happily. _

_Piper opened her bedroom door, a small gust of wind blew in her face, her hair drifting through the air. She glanced at her room; there was the bed, covers messily kept the same way she woke up out of them, the dresser, the bedside table; her fairy tale book on top, and her broken castle snow globe, looking less exquisite when all of the sparkles were gone. Her closet was open a bit, some things sticking out of the door. It looked the exact same way she kept it when _HE _kicked the bucket. Even the old, musky smell of the room was there. Yet it still was a reminder. _

_Piper, on one hand, was glad her stepmother made her move rooms; she would probably not cry herself to sleep anymore, that was one thing. But she also regretted this decision she made upon herself. She would desperately miss her father; she was the one who leaned on him and he let her. He helped her through all the good and bad times they shared, but now circumstances changed. Why did fate toy with her life, out of all the people of the world?_

_She tiredly shook out of her thoughts and started to pack. Grabbing the closest thing near her, which happened to be the fairy tale book, she grudgingly placed it inside a cardboard box that was already in the room. 'Must've been Christina', she thought, 'after all, she hates me.'_

_After a half hour of cleaning the room and packing all of her belongings, she grabbed the last box, filled with her most important treasures. She slowly walked out of the room, looking back at it for a moment, then began her way back up the stairs to the attic for the final time. Medea and Khione, once again, followed her, like hawks stalking their prey, up to the stairway. They watched her go up the dark stairs, stop, then look back at them. Longing kaleidoscope eyes stared at the twins, desperate for the love of her deceased father. The twins giggled, smiling evilly at Piper and then ran off down the hallway to reach the stairway to the first floor. _

_Piper watched her stepsisters run off, probably to tell their mother that Piper's moved into the attic. The twins would probably argue on who would get Piper's old room, only to be stopped by their mother, saying that they'll both share the room. That was usually what would happen, every night it was the same thing. _

_The frail brunette turned her head, craning it upwards to look at the amount of stairs left to be climbed. The nine year-old climbed up the stairs, reaching the top and looked at the doorway. She walked inside the attic. 'Just as expected' she thought. It was like any average attic; there were cobwebs filled in the occasional corner of the room, one light bulb was lighting the entire room, boxes of random objects placed, and dust covering the room from the window to the floor. _

_What made the attic even more eerie was that it was raining hard outside, so you could hear the pitter-patter of the drops of aqua pound on the rooftop. 'Great, now I'm never gonna sleep at night.' she thought._

_Piper placed the box near the bed, then sat on the squeaky mattress. She looked through the dusty glass window, the rain going at a never-ending pace. Since it was at a late hour at night, Piper decided to go to sleep and un-pack tomorrow, rest was what she needed to get out of this nightmare. She turned out the light, pulling the covers over her head._

_"Dreams, huh?" Piper said, turning her body to face the window, "Do they really come true, dad?"_

Soooooooo hows it going? Lol anyways um I do know that Rachel is like the same age as Piper but I didn't know who else to put, sorry :/


	2. it keeps gettin' better

_Eight years later . . . ._

A sunny-side morning had stuck, the rays of light hitting the green, healthy lawn perfectly. A hedge of what looked like an elephant was striking a pose; its trunk pointing upwards but bowed a little.

Strangely enough, it looked fitting to be on that lawn, since there were enough oddities on the property; pink shutters and the occasional pink trim on the house exterior, hot pink flamingos spread out at random on the front lawn, a pink Volkswagen parked in the driveway, along with a ruby red and light green Volkswagen, all three German cars surprisingly clean to the eye and touch, shining like knights in polished armor.

"Piper?" spoke Christina, mumbles heard through the baby monitor placed in a teen's room. Posters of favorite bands and the "Princeton" college logo were hanging above a drawing made by a nine year old.

"Yoo-hoo Piper?" Christina again said. Where was Piper you may ask? She was sleeping on top of her history textbook that was on her desk, up late in the hours of the night once again, her computer screen dark and blank. It was a peaceful morning . . . .

"PIPER!" Christina yelled into the baby monitor, waking up and startling Piper. She yawned and stretched her limbs, sore from staying in the position for too long. "It's breakfast time . . ." Christina said annoyingly, "SO BRING ME MY BREAKFAST!". Maybe today wasn't gonna be a peaceful morning . . . .

A dog bark could be heard outside, its owner whistling for it to come to its master. _The neighbor's dog..._ Piper thought. She sighed, looking out the window, hoping for a new day. _Yeah right, _Piper saw the dog run back to its master, her neighbor patting it on the head and giving it a dog bone. The dog happily agreed to his master's reward, grabbing it with its mouth and running around in many circles, _this isn't gonna be a new day._

Piper threw her pencil onto her desk, scratching her messy mop of choppy brown hair. "PIPER!" Christina yelled for a fourth time, obviously ticked that her breakfast wasn't in front of her. Piper groaned, _I'm coming, I'm coming,_ she thought, tilting her head back in her swivel chair, spun around towards her closet and reached for an outfit.

Outside the bright morning, a lady with slender tan legs, white heels and dressed in a skin-tight dress, all pink if I must add, was reading a salmon diet book by the side of her pool, laying her "slender body" on a pool chair. Her eyes, covered with a pair of sunglasses, looked on each page, hungrily wanting to get slim fast and quick. She had an impatient look on her face, her make-up not helping her look any better. What even made it worse was that the plastic surgery done on her cheekbones wasn't helping her get that "happy and cheerful" look she wanted. It just made her look even more "distasteful", as Piper would describe her.

Every couple of minutes, she would look up to the other side of the pool, where her two daughters were being trained in water aerobics with a teacher in an orange jogging outfit flailing his arms about.

Flimsily splashing water at random, two girls, in flowery purple one piece with matching floral swim caps, were "dancing gracefully" in the pool. The instructor, up above on safe, dry land, was saying different water aerobic dances, while dancing along with the girls as well.

"One, two, three and bicycle! Flap 'em, flap 'em, flap 'em!" the instructor said, waving his arms in a circular motion, the two teens following in step, "And Merry Way!" He raised his arms up in a "V" motion, the girls repeating, "Lady Liberty! Lady Liberty! Around the harbor! Around the harbor! And circle! Hurricane!" More random shouts of moved were yelled, the girls trying their best to keep up.

Looking up from her salmon diet book, Christina watched her daughters do their morning routine, smiling a little from time to time. "Can you believe how extraordinarily gifted my girls are?" she spoke to the instructor, who stopped his shouts. He hesitantly answered back, "Absolutely unbelievable", twiddling his knotty fingers in nervousness.

Christina smiled once more, then reverted her emotions into a scowled mood, remembering one more thing. "PIPER!"

Around the corner of the pool's gate came Piper, dressed in an old pair of pants and a navy-blue long-sleeved shirt. She was speed walking, holding a plate of salmon in her right hand and trying her best to put a smile on her face. "Coming!" she shouted, reaching Christina in a quickened pace.

Christina looked as the brunette approached her. Taking a sip out of her glass of iced tea, she looked up at the girl, expecting some long story as to why her breakfast came to her late. "Is this the Norwegian salmon that I asked for?'Cause I need my omega 3's". Piper nodded, "Only the best".

Giving a glare, Christina grabbed the plate, cut the salmon into bite-sized pieces and took the salmon and chewed in a disgusting cow-like chewing pattern. "Mmmm. Mmmm, I can tell," chewing once more, Christina spoke, "Ya know, that cost a fortune to fly that stuff from Norwegia". Piper gave a fake smile and trying her best not to complain.

"And push it ladies, push it ladies!" the instructor doing the doggy-paddle in the air, "push it ladies!" Medea and Khione, the girls in the pool, followed the instructor.

"Ready?" said Medea, Khione giving a nod. Khione went behind Medea, her arms up in the air. Khione grabbed Medea's hands from behind and proceeded with the next move.

Until a giant bubble bursted out of the pool, near Karen's rear. "Whoopsies!" Medea muttered.

"Ewww! Gross!" Khione shouted, then looked in the direction Christina was sitting, "Mom!". Medea turned her body towards her sister, "I have a 'spastic colon!". Khione looked at her sister, "Oh! Well you have a 'spastic brain!". Khione then grabbed her sister's head and dunked it under the water, bubbles from Medea's lack of oxygen.

A whistle was blown, most likely used for situations like this. "Stop! Stop it, you hear! Stop it! Stop it!" the instructor said, pointing his index finger at each of the girls.

Piper turned around to see the commotion behind her, her mouth open from shock. "What are you doing just standing there?" Christina said in a sassy tone, her eyebrows narrowing every passing second. Piper whipped her head to the direction of the voice, hesitated to say something. "Get to work."

"Christina," Piper fumbled with her fingers, trying to get the right words out of her mouth, "I can't go to work this morning. I've got this really big test I have to study for-" "Listen Piper," Christina interrupting the girl, "People go to school to get smarter so that they can get a job." Christina said, her voice sounding like she was talking to a ignorant six year old, "You already have a job. So it's like skipping a step." she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in exasperation to the teen, whose face looked like she already knew the routine lecture, "C'mon get going."

Piper, like the girl she was, gave a soft sigh and a twist of her heels, she walked out of the pool patio, shaking her head in exhaustion.

"And flying Karamazov solve!" Another random command was said. Medea and Khione, now long over their two minute bicker, were now trying to perfect a new move, where one sister would be underwater bent over, while the other would stand on the back of the bent over sister. Unfortunately, a loud **SMACK! **to the face was the last thing they both did before they got out of the pool.

**the next chapter's when Piper gets to school and meets everyone. But be in for a surprise, some characters may be rolled differently. **


	3. Populars

This is the chapter where **JASON COMES IN**! XD He's not in this much but in later chapters he will, promise!

And just as a warning, there will be** Jasper **and **Percabeth** and probably some other ones… not sure yet though

the song's** Crash world by Hilary Duff**.

**Guys, please don't think I own anyof this… cause I don't **

After the lecture from Christina, Piper walked out of the pool patio, desperately wanting to get out of the heavy, snooty atmosphere. Her father never raised her to be rude or bossy, his morals were much similar to his wife, Aphrodite, who died in the process of giving birth to the bubbly brunette. Tristan was the kind of man that would be proud of Piper, even if she embarrassed the family; there would always be a smile on his face no matter what. After all, in Piper's eyes, Tristan was the best dad in the entire world, no doubt.

Taking the lawn as a shortcut, Piper jogged across to reach the front door of the house, the sprinklers hitting her, water spraying everywhere. A shriek emitted from the brunette, her arms covering her hair. Piper looked for the faucet of the outside water and ran towards it, turning the knob all the way to stop the flow of aqua. Looking up from her book, Christina took notice that Piper was trying to stop the water from watering the healthy, green grass. A small grunt came from Christina, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance.

"No, honey, leave those on! The lawn's looking a little brown!" Christina spoke, staring at the brunette.

"Christina! We're supposed to be conserving water! We're in the middle of a drought!" Piper exasperated, looking back at her step-mother.

Indeed, the entire city was in a drought. No drop of water had touched the city's soil in over a couple of months. Lawns of the suburbs started turning brown, some lawns' grass even shriveled up into nothing but dirt in order to conserve the little water that the city already had. Overall, most folks had stopped using an abundance of their water. Keyword: most.

Giving a sigh and a shake of her head, Christina spoke in a tired voice, "Droughts are for poor people. You think J-Lo has a brown lawn?" She continued to read from her salmon book. Piper gave an annoyed groan and shot up from her crouched position and ran back towards the front door, shutting it with a slam.

"People who use extra water have extra class!" Christina shouted, while grabbing her plate of salmon. She then took a piece of salmon, poked it with her fork, but it landed on her chest. She looked down to her chest, grabbed the piece of salmon with her fingers and popped the fish in her mouth, chewing it and reading her book once more, ignoring the fact she had missed her mouth completely.

Piper ran out of her house through the front door, her hands occupied with a jacket resting on her left arm, a textbook in her left hand, her right hand holding her car keys and slung over her shoulder was her backpack. Rushing, she unlocked her car, her father's old light blue mustang. She was happy that Christina decided to give her the car. In Christina's eyes it was perfectly fine for "an average normal tomboy" as Piper was referred to. Truth be told, Piper wasn't a tomboy, more like a tougher girl but not mannish or buff. She still was girly, just not as excessive.

Opening the front door, she dropped her books and bag in the back of the car. Grabbing the baseball hat in the passenger's seat, she placed it on her head, snuggly fitting her, and proceeded to turn on the 'stang and closed the driver's door. As she turned on the car, she looked up to see if Medea and Khione watching her like the hawks they were. _Thank god! _Piper thought. _I don't need to be watched 24/7!_

Blasting the radio, one of her favorite songs was on, the last couple of lyrics playing. Piper began to reverse the car backwards out of the driveway, onto the road, and drive away from her hell of a home. Piper started to sing along with the radio. Ironically, the lyrics fit her mood and life perfectly.

_Go on! _

_Get out of my head!_

_I'm on the wrong side of a parallel universe._

_Am I alive or just dead?_

_I've been stumbling in the dark,_

_Living in a crash world._

_(Crash world!)_

_(Yeah, yeah!)_

After driving a couple of blocks out of the suburbs, the town came into view, as well as her destination she dreaded to get to.

Her father's diner. Only this time, it was like the 1950's time period had thrown up all over the place.

The diner didn't even look like Tristan's anymore; the large arrow sign with **TRISTAN'S **in big bold letters was replaced with a pink rectangular sign, it's neon red lighting spelling out **CHRISTINA'S**. The traditional yellow and green siding was colored a bubblegum pink, sickening to the eyes, and a wall was painted in a 50's style; a redhead with short, curly hair lying down on the beach in a bikini. Classy to Christina, but not for Piper.

The interior of the diner was refurbished when Tristan died; everything themed in a 1950's style; a jukebox at the far end of the entrance playing old songs no one knew about anymore, the green-cushioned pedestals placed for the forest-green over hanged countertop now a metallic chrome with leather pink cushioning, tables colored pearl white with the additional salt and pepper shakers made of glass and metal.

Even the uniform for the waitresses had changed, from the old yellow and green lining dress, simple in design, to now a complicated 50's grease sock hop pink and black poodle dress with white roller blades as part of the uniform.

Piper hesitantly parked the car, grabbed her things and went inside, seeing customers already eating their breakfast when she opened the door.

Gleeson, the chef, was cooking in his kitchen, whistling whilst throwing pancakes up in the air and flipping them as well. The sound of his pancakes being pressed onto the stove, a sizzling yet bubbly sound, colliding with the jukebox playlist was the only thing heard besides the mutters of the diner's customers and Rachel, who was yelling at someone on the phone, talking sassy back. She stood close to the cash register, which was positioned to be right near the entrance and exit of the diner. Her right leg cocked to the side and her foot tapping the black-and-white checkered flooring.

"You call that grade A beef-! Well that cow must've cheated on his test!" Rachel said, ending the call and placed the diner's phone back into its holder. She ruffled up her curled, red, silky locks of hair, giving a long "Mmmhmmm!" and proceeded to help the customers, ignoring all the looks she got.

Other waitresses in the diner included Hazel and Melli. Melli, who worked full-time, had gotten Gleeson, her boyfriend, a job at **CHRISTINA'S**, more specifically the chef's role. She was one of the skillful waitresses, who perfected her job and rollerbladed at the same time without dropping any dish. Hazel, on the other hand, worked part-time, like Piper, but was more of a klutz, dropping at least one piece of silverware each week and banging her head on the bar-like countertop when rollerblading underneath it.

"Pick up!" Hedge shouted, banging the order bell near the shelf. The smell of salmon emitted from the kitchen, wreaking the room of fish. Rachel walked into the kitchen, smelling the room, her nose scrunching up in disgust and proceeded on speaking.

"Hedge, that's enough with the salmon! You already made salmon-omelet, salmon-soup, and salmon pudding! C'mon!" She exasperated. Hedge looked her in the eyes then grabbed something from underneath the stove, attracting Rachel's undivided attention.

A giant salmon was pulled out. Hedge used his hands to make the salmon talk. In a whiny but funny voice, he said, "Help me! Christina wants to eat me!"

A chuckle came out of Rachel's lips. "Oh that's nasty!" Rachel laughed, pointing her finger at the aquatic dead animal.

"Bite me Rachel!" Hedge squeaked, Rachel quickly walking out of the kitchen, squeaking an "Ewww!".

Rachel walked out of the kitchen, almost bumping into Hazel. "Hazel, your order's up!" Said girl nodded and slowly skated away. "Coming! I got it!" she said, grabbing her order. She turned around quick, expecting to turn gracefully, but ended up slipping and tripped over her own feet, her order falling onto the ground and the first plate of the week gone.

"Safe!" Hedge shouted, his arms above his head in a "V" motion, witnessing the entire scene from the kitchen.

Cringing from the disaster, Rachel let out an "Ooh!", her face scrunched up in worry before handling the customers in front of her. "I'm okay!" Hazel exclaimed from the floor, getting up with much trouble, slipping every chance she got her feet to steady.

"Dionysus, how you doing?" Rachel smiled, grabbing a pen and paper from underneath the counter. "Perfect." He replied, folding his newspaper up.

"So, cheese omelet, extra bacon crispy, blueberry muffin and a Coke." Rachel said, already knowing what Dionysus's regular meal is in the mornings.

"Oh! Make it a diet! I'm trying to watch my weight." He said, leaning in and raising his eyebrows in a knowing manner. Rachel raised her head slowly, stiffly but said, "Oh, it aint going nowhere." She shook her head and walked to the kitchen shelf, where the orders were placed.

A ding from the kitchen rung. "Pick up these salmon waffles!" Hedge shouted.

A waitress, holding a plastic container filled with dirty dishes, was going from table to table, rollerblading, grabbing all the dishes left out on the tables. Her hair was pinned up in a messy bun. Rachel, noticing the girl, watched her. Rachel's smile faltered at the sight, seeing just who was waitressing.

" Piper, what are you still doing here?" Rachel said, walking over to the working brunette. "I'm almost done." Piper replied calmly, picking up another plate.

"You're gonna be late for school!"

"I'll get there! Christina will be ballistic if I don't get this done."

Rachel cocked her hip to the side, and crossed her arms, raising one of her eyebrows, "I couldn't care less about Christina. What I care about is your education."

"But!-"

"She's got you gettin' up at the crack of dawn like some kind of rooster."

"But I-"

"Your dad would want you at school, not here!"

"Bu-"

"No more buts!" Grabbing the plastic container out of Piper's hands, Rachel continued, "You just leave Christina and her big butt to me!"

Piper stared at Rachel, unsure if she should follow her instructions, before a smile cracked onto Piper's face. "Thanks Rachel."

"Get!" Rachel jerked her thumb towards the exit, her head glancing at the entrance for a second but not for long. Piper skated her way to her things, which were left on the side counter top, took them and exited the building, slipping off the uniform and wore her baseball cap while walking towards the blue mustang.

Around a suburban neighborhood, a mustang pulled up in front of a tan colored house, a.k.a the Jacksons' household. With a beep of the car horn, she craned her neck to see a man, around middle age, was cleaning his old car. Piper, trying to remember what the kind of car he owned but couldn't, sighed and hollered to the man, "Hey! Looking good Mr. Jackson!"

Looking away from his baby, Mr. Jackson saw Piper in her light blue mustang. "Man's best friend is his Mercedes, Piper." He said, wiping away invisible dirt that wouldn't go away. Nodding her head, Piper smiled, "I'll remember that!"

The front door of the Jackson household opened and out came Percy, Piper's childhood best friend, who was and still is a social outcast of their high school, along with Piper as well. He was dressed in a red shirt, red pants, black sunglasses over his eyes, gold chains hanging from his neck and his backpack slung over his shoulder. Percy was walking towards Piper's car, while studying, or in his case, "acting" out a scene in the script he was holding, repeating and emphasizing words.

"Anything is possible if you just belie-" he paused then repeated the line once more, but slower, "Anything is possible is you just belie-"

"Audition today, son?" Mr. Jackson said, glancing at his son. "Yeah, uh, 5 o'clock, alright? Tell ma!" Percy said in a ghetto accent. "Knock 'em dead!" Mr. Jackson said, encouraging his son in a helpful manner.

Walking towards Piper's car, Percy was about to open the passenger's door when he took a good look at the car. Shaking his head, Percy turned his head and said to his father in a ghetto accent, "Dad!" Said man looked up from the cleaning of the front left tire. "Now, do you see what I have to go to school in! No offense Piper seriously but, don't you feel sorry for me?"

Mr. Jackson looked at his son, then said "No, I feel sorry for the three cars we got you that you towed." Giving a why-the-hell-does-it-matter face, Percy gave up, muttering an "Okay, alright" in the process and opened the passenger's door. Slamming it shut, he shook his head, sat down and waited for the 'stang to move, only for Piper to interrupt.

"Percy, what are you wearing?" Piper said, disappointed at her friends choice of clothes. Percy gave an offended look, "What! This is my Snoop Dizzle look!" Piper looked him over again and with wide eyes, she said, "I cannot drive you to school like that."

Percy took off his shades dramatically, "Piper! I am a method actor, okay and this," he pointed to his clothes, "is part of my training."

"Yes, I know, I know, but," grabbing the red hat adorned on his head, she started again, "look at this!" Shaking the hat in her hand, she waved it around Percy's face, just to get the point across from him.

Percy gave in, reaching for the side door, and opened it, and pushed it outwards, "Alright, take two!"

The Ancient Times (A/N: sorry couldn't think of a better name for the high school :/) High School, or also known as Ancients, was filled with students on campus. Some doing their homework, others walking and talking with their friends. Overall, ranges of different grades were spread all over the place. The announcements went off.

"Buenos Dias Fighting Centars! Here's your daily drought reminder to conserve agua. Cut your showers short. Brownie points go to Mr. Wakaba who hasn't had one in weeks." Annabeth said, with an aura of positivity. "And don't forget! Today's your last chance to get tickets for the big Halloween homecoming dance! Whoop Dee Do! You too can dress up like someone you're not for a change. I mean-"

"I pledge of allegiance," interrupted , at the last minute realizing where Annabeth was gonna lead the announcements to. Annabeth jumped when she heard Mrs. Bregman talk into the microphone. Annabeth started to say the pledge as well, "to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic, for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

"Pre-mode parking spot right there!" Percy said, pointing to a slot in the student parking lot. Piper turned the car towards the direction. Giggles could be heard from another car, a girl saying, "Get the slot! Get the slot!" Just as Piper was about to take the slot, another car, colored pink, took it with quickness and no hesitation, taking up two slot spaces.

"Piper watch out! Watch out!" Percy said, the mustang stopping at a jolt. "You snooze, you lose!" the girls said, laughing menacingly at Percy and Lucy. Lucy rested her arm on the side door, her head leaning against her hand. She shook her head and proceeded to watch the popular girls get out of the car.

All of them dressed up preppy-like, but the middle girl stood out. "We'll, if it isn't Drew and her ladies in waiting." Percy muttered to himself, Piper also hearing his snarky comment. Drew, Silena and Lacy walked out, all standing around like the school girls they were.

"Drew wants me so bad." Percy said, Piper looking over to him. "You've never even talked to her before." Piper said, saying the utter truth. Percy looked over to Piper, "Oh, I've talked to her, okay. In my mind." Piper shook her head and looked out the side window. "Let me tell you, in my mind, she wants me so bad." Percy said, watching Drew ruffle her straight brown hair, in a flirtatious way.

"Percy, you can do so much better than Drew, even in your mind." Piper said, pointing a hand to Drew, who was giggling with her friends, then looking at Percy, who was looking off to the other side of the parking lot. He glanced around before seeing another possible spot open.

"Oh! There's a spot!" He mumbled, watching a car reverse in direction and drive out of the way. "Got it!" Piper muttered, driving towards the spot, but like before, another car had taken the spot, a Mercedes-Benz G-Klasse. "Come on!" Piper shouted.

Now, guys came out of the car, one getting out of the passenger's seat, the other from the back seat. Both of them were laughing, pointing their fingers at Piper and Percy. Leo and Travis

But the last guy, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz, came out of his car. His hair was ruffled, and laid slightly in his eyes, and his clothes were a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He slammed the driver's door, and locked his car with a click of a button.

To Piper, everything was in slow motion. He walked slower, his glance at her was slower, time just had to play with her today. She shook her head and looked to her left, _Great, he's here._ Her imagination was cut off short by Drew.

"Jason!" Drew giggled, walking over to her boyfriend. Said guy looked up towards the sound and watched her getting closer to him.

"I swear, people like Drew and Jason are genetically programmed to find each other. How can so much ego be in one relationship?" Lucy said, watching the group of teens converse in talking. "Imagine what they say about you." Percy said, looking in the direction where Piper's eyes were.

Piper scoffed, "They don't even know I exist."

Lacy noticed the two talking in the car, "Ewww! Stalkerrazzi at three o'clock!" Everyone in the group turned to Piper and Percy, who stopped talking and listened to what they said. Drew saw them and grabbed a school bullhorn, "The white zone is for cool people only. No geeks." With a satisfied smile, she heard her friends laugh.

"Hey uh, Diner Girl? Can I get a breakfast burrito to go? Thank you!" yelled Travis, Leo laughing along with his joke.

"And you thought they didn't know you exist?" Percy said, watching them laugh and giggle. Piper shook her head and started up the car once more and drove into the next aisle of cars, "Right."

I know that I made some people mean who are actually not (ex: lacy or leo) but I didn't know who else to put1 please don't hate me!


	4. Nomad

"Move."

The first words that Drew and her subordinates said simultaneously in the crowded hallways of Ancients. Instantly, her posse was surrounded by the swarm of high school students, mostly guys trying to get a good look at the beautiful three. They continued to walk past the crowd, being rude as always.

"Move, move, move, move-" "Drew!" The trio had stopped when the voice yelled out Drew's name. They looked in the crowd and saw two girls, one dressed in green, the other in red, running up to them, smiles on their faces.

"Hey sister friend!" Khione yelled out, Medea not too far behind. The trio realized that it was only them and continued to walk, Drew waving her hand to them and proceeded with her swagger. "Remind me again why we tolerate them?" Drew said, an annoyed look on her face. "They gave you a Prada bag for your birthday." Silena said, giving a knowing look on her face. She pushed her hair out of her face, looking the least plastic outta all of them and somehow, the nicest out of the three.

"Try "Frada" bag. Totally fake." Lacy hissed, looking to Drew with her nose scrunched in disgust.

Piper and Percy passed the trio with swiftness, avoiding the humiliation of being labeled as "Losers" in the hallway, where everyone was socializing. Looking back, Percy and Piper glanced at them, then looked at each other. Percy shrugged his shoulders.

While walking to class, Percy and Piper happened to run into an acquaintance. Dan Straight.

"Greetings! Piper, you're look absolutely stunning today, as per usual." Dan nodded, smiling truly to the two. "Thank you Dan." Piper replied. A ring emitted from Dan's wristwatch, "If you'll excuse me, I must get back to my galaxy." Pulling out of his bag what looked like a walkie talkie with a long antenna, Dan passed the two and turned on the device, talking into the object. "Zion, Lieutenant Dan here. Hello? Can you hear me? Captain, you're going in and out."

Watching his retreating figure, Percy fixed his bag over his shoulder and sighed, "Poor guy." Piper, looking at Percy questioningly, "At least he's happy." Percy gave an 'Are-you-kidding-me?' look and proceeded with what he was saying. "Happy? Guy lives in another world."

"Sometimes fantasy is better than reality, Percy." Piper said, watching Dan walk to his next class. Interrupting the conversation, a cell phone ring went off, more specifically Piper's. "Speaking of fantasies. . . ." Percy smiled, watching his friend take out her phone and smiled. "See you later!" Piper said, waved goodbye to Percy and walked to the fountain on the campus.

"Ah yes! The secret admirer beckons!" Percy said, waving good bye to Piper and walked to his next class.

Sitting down on the fountain edge, Piper opened her phone and looked at the text, reading it with pleasure.

**Where have you been? We haven't talked in ages.**

Piper smiled at the text. It was from an anonymous admirer that went to Ancients who had similar problems as what Piper had. Ever since Piper went onto the library computers and clicked onto the Ancients private chat room and somehow started talking to Nomad, the username her admirer is, she's texted and emailed him all the time.

Her username was Princetongirl818, since it was the college she's always wanted to go to from her childhood. Nomad questioned this one day and she told him why she chose the name. He replied something funny and joy lit up her world of sadness. It was her personal happiness that loved getting these texts, she just wouldn't stop smiling after each one her admirer sent.

She texted him back with _**We talked this morning. **_and sent the text. Her cell phone rang again a few seconds later.

**I can't stop thinking about you. What's on your mind right now?**

_**You first.**_

**Well, I'm thinking Professor Daedalus dissected one too many frogs.**

Piper giggled at his text, smiling. Looking up from her phone, she watched as Mr. Daedalus looked like he was trying to catch flies with his mouth. What really wasn't helping was the fact he was also eating his sandwich, his food flying everywhere.

Piper looked around her line of vision, wanting to know which guys were texting. She wanted to see where Nomad was, considering the fact Piper knows him but Nomad doesn't know her. Not yet, at least. Taking notice of the many guys texting on campus, her smile faltered, hoping Nomad was in the area but wasn't. Or what she thought.

A ring interrupted her thoughts.

**Ribet Ribet.**

Giggling, she texted him back happily.

_**Laugh out loud.**_

**I wanna hear your laugh. When can we finally meet?**

Piper hesitated, thought for a minute, then texted him back, sending the message. The bell rung and Piper picked up her things, walking to the doors of Ancients.

A hand held out a phone, waiting for a reply. The cell phone rang, indicating the text was received. The man looked at his phone. On his screen, it said one word.

_**Soon.**_

Jason closed his phone, disappointed that Princetongirl818 would see him soon. He wanted to see her now, know who the hell she was. She was quite interesting in his perspective. He glanced at all the students retreating back to the school, book bags and textbooks in tow. Jason sighed, _This is gonna be a long day._

Durring a free period, Jason walked to the library, hoping that Princetongirl818 would be on one of the computers. He logged into a computer, reached the Ancients private chat rooms and typed a sentence to her.

**How's your day so far?**

Piper, just logging into the chat rooms, noticed Nomad was on and had sent her an email. She read the sentence, then replied back.

_**Raging step-mom, work and cool kids who can't get over themselves. Ever feel like you don't belong?**_

**Absolutely. I can be surrounded by a sea of people and still feel all alone. Then I think of you.**

Smiling at his response, Piper responded back.

_**Hey Nomad, do you think we've ever met?**_

**I don't know. Our school has over 3500 kids.**

_**Well that narrows it down.**_

As Nomad was about to reply, the school bell rung, signaling the day had ended. Grabbing her books and her cell phone, Piper logged out and walked out of the library, leaving Nomad. Not going to her locker, she arrived at her car and drove home, thinking of taking a nice walk down the street and back, of course texting Nomad all the while.

She reached home, back to where she least wanted to be. She unlocked the front door, kicked off her sneakers and dropped off her bag on the floor. Walking to the kitchen, she opened the 'fridge and looked inside, grabbed a frozen pizza and closed the door. Reheated the pizza, Piper ate it and looked at the time. She smiled, remembering her thoughts in her car.

Slipping back on her sneakers, she grabbed her keys, cell phone, and shoulder bag, locking the front door behind her and proceeded with the afternoon conversation in the library. Nomad texted her back.

**Well at least I can eliminate the guys. You're not a guy right? 'Cause if you are, I'll kick your butt.**

_**I am not a guy. **_

Up in the late hours of night, they continued their conversation, neither one of them wanting to falter to sleep.

_**Have you told your dad about Princeton yet?**_

**If only I could. I haven't even told him I wanna be a writer. **

_**My father always encouraged me to pursue my dreams.**_

**Not mine. He has another plan for my life.**

Piper noticed the time, realizing how late it was, and decided to end the conversation.

_**It's 2 A.M. We've been at this for five hours.**_

**Well I think we broke our record.**

_**We should turn in. Sweet dreams.**_

**Wait.**

Pausing for a second, Piper waited for his reply.

**I can't sleep without knowing there's hope. **

**Half the night, I waste in sighs.**

**In a wakeful dose, I sorrow. **

**For the hand,**

**The lips,**

**The eyes.**

**For the meeting of tomorrow.**

_**Quoting Tennyson. Impressive.**_

**Please meet me at the homecoming dance.**

**I'll be waiting for you at 11:00 in the middle of the dance floor.**

Piper read over and over the exact same sentence, now etched into her mind. _Will I finally see him? _She looked outside her window, the waxing gibbous shape of the moon glowing bright as the sun. Doubt filled her mind. _Would he even recognize me? Maybe he might not go the dance. _Piper's hands ran through her hair and she let out a big breath she held in involuntary. _We'll just have to see._

Jason looked at his computer screen, hoping Princetongirl818 would be at the dance. Sighing to himself, he whispered softly, "Sweet dreams. . ."

Lol so I guess you can say this is a Jasper chapter ;) but wanna know something…. Oh well, I'm jamming out to Tswift right now… :D


	5. Parents

BANG!

The sound of a baseball bat was heard. Dodging the projecting fastball, Percy jumped, squealing a "Whoa!" in the process and looked back in the direction the ball went. Piper adjusted her grip on the metal bat, discouraged at particularly nothing.

Except the endless supply of chores waiting at home. That was an exception.

"That was close!" Percy muttered, adjusting his ascot hinged onto his neck. Today he was dressed up as a British man in the 1700's, and somehow pulling off the look. He traded the ridiculous pants for navy blue dress pants, modernizing the look.

Looking back at Piper, Percy spoke. " Piper! This is great! You're finally gonna be able to meet him!"

Piper shook her head, "I don't know. This guy's too good to be true."

Placing another ball inside the automatic baseball pitching machine, Percy braced himself for the next fly ball. The ball flung and Piper hit it, just missing Percy by an inch.

"C'mon! It's been, like, a month since you met him in the school's chat rooms, okay? You talk to him all the time! You know him." Percy said, using his arms, emphasizing his point.

"I know but he doesn't know me! What if I meet him and I'm not what he expects?!" Piper exasperated. She shook her head in doubt and looked at the dirt, "Maybe this whole relationship's just better off in cyberspace." she whispered. Percy, hearing the fear and rejection in her voice, hated when his best friend was like this. Because of Chirstina, her dreams were crushed to a speck of dust, barely in grasp anymore. He gritted his teeth and calmed down, and used the nice-and-persuading facade once more.

"Listen, okay? You have to go to that dance, okay? This Nomad guy isn't gonna be in one place for long, all right?" He sighed once he saw Piper kick the dirt.

The same exact action she did when she was troubled with the fact Tristan left the world. A thought occurred to him, and Piper immediately blurted it out, giddiness spreading through his veins.

"If it helps, I'll be your escort!" he said cheerfully, hoping this would uplift the depressing mood. After all, he only wanted his best friend to be happy. Christina was hell for Piper.

"Really?" Piper said, shocked and dumbfounded at her friend. _He would go to this length to help me?_

"Yeah!"

Piper smiled, giving a thumbs up to the raven-haired man, "You rock, Percy!"

A ring interrupted the positive atmosphere. Piper looked at her pocket and took out her cell phone, while Percy was walking around, having a slight feeling as to who was her caller. "Hello?"

" Piper?!" Squawked Christina, who was at home, looking through her refrigerator with her mint green facial wash on, "Some little rat got into my salmon and ate it all!"

Piper rolled her eyes and cocked her hip out to the side. _Oh, great . . . . ._

"I need more salmon! And pick up my dry cleaning!" Christina whined, shutting the kitchen 'fridge with a slam. Piper had to cover her ears, her step-mother was just so loud and annoying. "And wash the jag!"

Percy wiped the sweat off his forehead and saw his friend's distress when he turned around. Piper ended the call and sighed, shaking her head. "Christina?" He guessed. Piper shook her head up and down in reply, exhausted more from her than practicing baseball. "One more pitch!" Piper yelled, picking up her metal bat.

"Why do you act like her slave?" Percy questioned, waving his arms in exasperation.

"Simple; No Christina, no money for Princeton."

Percy tsked, "That sucks."

"Tell me about it."

Percy hesitantly placed the ball inside the machine, backing up and leaning away from Piper. The ball proceeded through the machine, and was hurling through the air, right towards the brunette. Piper imagined the ball as the cool girls; Silena, Lacy and Drew then as her step-sisters; Medea and Khione and finally her step-mother, Christina. In her imagination, the ball was changing its surface as each and every one of their faces, all annoying Piper to no end.

Until it stopped on Christina. Christina seemed to be taunting Piper, teasing her with a childish "Na, Na, Na, Na, NA!" with a fast pace. Piper's anger rose, her grip tightened around the bat as the ball was moving closer,

And closer,

And closer.

Christina screamed as she was about to be pummeled by the bat, the shrill ringing through Piper's ears. At the last moment, there was a loud CLANG! vibration of the bat colliding with the baseball. Piper and Percy watched in amazement as the flying object flew over their heads and towards the football team, whom were all the way across the baseball field.

Leo held the football in his hands, ready to throw the ball when a baseball dropped right in front of him. Jason stared at the ball along with Leo, both wondering where the hell the random baseball came from.

Their answers were soon answered when Percy yelled out "Its outta here!" followed by a loud "WOOHOO!" holding his arms up in a v-like motion. Leo and Jason looked up towards the noise and watched as a teen with raven hair was spinning around in circles on the pitcher's mound, looking like a madman. The football players looked over to the batter's box, expecting a guy. They didn't expect a brunette girl with no muscles laughing at the raven-haired teen and twirling a baseball bat in her hands.

"Damn, a girl hit that. See, now that's impressive." Jason pointed out, smiling at the girl who looked like she was having the time of her life. "Yeah." Leo replied.

Getting back to practice, Leo threw the ball to Jason, "So, what are you and Drew going to the dance as?"

Jason hesitated, looking at the ball in his hands, then back to Leo, "I don't know if I'm going with Drew." _She's a mega-bitch, man! I don't WANNA go with Drew!_ He shouted out in his mind. He only wished he could say that out loud. But since it was Leo (who was childhood friends with the girl) whom he was talking to, he couldn't insult Drew in front of him. They were like brother and sister, and plus, if he sparred with him again, his mother would take away his computer. He didn't want to miss PrincetonGirl818 and her messages. _Damn, this girl's getting to my head . . . _

Blinking in surprise, Leo spoke, "You're not gonna go with Drew? Who else you gonna go with?"

Jason shrugged his shoulders with a smile, "I don't know. It's a mystery with me." He walked over to the baseball, picked it up and chucked it across the field, over to where the raven and brunette were.

Piper saw the missing ball coming back into the field and shouted with a smile, "Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" Jason replied, grinning and turning back to Leo. His mind lingered back to PrincetonGirl818 for a brief moment then back to reality. _Who is she anyway?_

"Okay, guys. Come on. A little bit further." Zeus spoke, holding a clipboard in his hand. He was ushering his employees on where to put his latest advertisement sign, a sale on his business; car-washing. "Right there." he said and pointed near a gas tank. His employees placed the sign down slowly. Jason's dad smiled, "Thirty percent off for USC alumni." He turned around, his smile vanished but reappeared again in a moment once he found his son working.

"Looks good, my friend. Make sure you get these rims." Jason said, checking over a car that his dad's employee was working on. "Jason!" Said teen looked up, only to find his father walking towards him, "What's up?" Zeus looked at him for a moment, studying his son's face. _Why would he . . . . ? _Shaking off his faltering thought, Zeus shook his head and began on what he was about to say, "What's with all those college brochures in your bedroom?"

The first thing Jason registered in his mind was why his dad was going in his room. _He didn't see my e-mails right?_ "What're you doing in my room?" Jason said in a hostile tone. Remembering he logged off his computer every time he went off, he relaxed for a bit before recalling the many college brochures left out on his desk. _Crap_. Thinking quickly, he managed to sputter out a sentence. "I-I'm trying to keep my options open." _There we go! _Looking down at some paperwork in his tanned hands, he looked away from his dad's stare.

"You don't need options. It's all taken care of." Zeus said, slinging an arm around Jason's shoulders. Jason looked to the side, waiting for what his father had in mind now. Lifting his unoccupied arm, Zeus moved it to the side, his palm away from him and his index finger and thumb forming an "L", which faced him and Jason. "Look, Jason we've been working on this program since you were seven years old. You're gonna play USC football, graduate and then you'll manage this business with me."

Since Jason was seven, Zeus had wanted Jason to play football. His father never wanted Zeus to play such a stupid game and instead study and become a lawyer. But Zeus had other plans on his mind. He wanted to be a football player since he was young. He wanted to play the game where his heart was pounding and dirt and grime would stick to his clothes and his grinning face. He wanted to join his favorite team "The Outrageous Olympians" and then start a family after all that chaos was done and over with. He dreamed to become the best football player.

But such dream didn't exist. And so, once Jason was born, Zeus swore to himself that he would pass on his dream down to Jason. Jason would at least have an opportunity where as Zues didn't. And he wasn't going to let anything stop his son from playing his favorite game. Or what he thought.

"Your future's set." Zeus said, getting out of bad and unwanted memories. "So don't mess with the plan, alright?" He smiled back to Jason, who put on a brave face and grinned a fake grin, "Wouldn't think of it." Zeus grinned, "That's my boy!"

Rubbing Jason's shoulder in encouragement, Zeus looked around and saw a light blue Honda Accord parked near a gas tank, "There's another customer. Go make them happy!"

Jason mumbled a "Yes sir." and watched his father walk away to help another customer, grinning the entire time. _Dad, why can't you see that I'm not into football? _Jason sighed, walking towards his next customer. He stopped for a moment and turned around only to see his father talk with a co-worker about football again. Zeus was laughing and grinning, his long canines showing. Jason smiled a bittersweet smile, _Well if it makes you happy, then I'll play football, Dad. Until I can't stand it anymore, I'll continue with it._ Turning around, Jason walked towards the car, forcing a smile.

Untill next time! Please review what you think!


	6. Walls almost break

Jason approached the Honda, inspecting it shortly and coming to a conclusion. He chuckled to himself, "Well, you need a wax." He took out his notepad and pen, writing down some numbers and waited for the customer to respond.

"Excuse me?"

Jason looked up, noticing that his customer was the same girl from the baseball field. Tapping on the driver's door with his pen, Jason acknowledged that the girl still had on a confused expression on her face. Smiling, he said, "I meant the car."

Piper blinked for a moment, realizing it wasn't an insult. "Oh. Fine." she said, rummaging through the many shopping bags in the tiny car. _Where did my purse go?_

Jason watched in amusement as the young lady was trying to locate something in her cramped and crowded car. He was about to ask if she needed any help when two very familiar Volkswagens parked in the gas lines. Their car horns blared loud and Jason had to cover his ears just to save them from bleeding. "Jason!"

Jason turned around, looking back to the brunette for a moment before attending the annoying duo. "Hi!" shouted Medea, smiling wide and her eyes looking perky. Khione soon caught up with her sister, catching her breath before realizing that Jason Grace was right in front of her. She smiled, "Hi, Jason!"

The teen smiled a weary smile, non-enthusiastic that he had to deal with more of his "popular" classmates. _More fan girls? _"We need our cars washed." Khione said quickly and eagerly. "Yeah! Look! Dirt!" Medea squealed, grinning a grin not fit on her face.

Jason stared at them for a minute. _Geez, it's like they just found out there's a sale going on at Juicy Couture from down the street! _Gesturing his hands to calm down, Jason smiled a fake smile, "One second ladies. All right." Turning back to the girl in the Honda, Jason poked her shoulder, grabbing the girl's attention. Ripping off a small slip of paper from his notepad, he grinned, "Take this inside when you're done. And thank you very much!" He turned around, smiled an uneasy to Medea and Khione and walked inside the car wash offices.

Once he was inside, Medea and Khione started freaking out; you could call it "fan girling" to the extreme.

"Oh my god! He's a God!" squealed Medea.

"He's so cute!" giggled Khione, jumping up and down in her spot.

"I know!"

Noticing that her step-sisters were there, Piper squirmed her way out of the tiny Honda and shut the driver's door. Leaning on the driver's door with both of her arms crossed over her chest, Piper said, "So who'd you guys pay to make your cars so dirty?"

Medea and Khione stopped their fan girling fest and looked annoyingly at her step-sister. "Excuse me? Like what are you? The dirt police?" Khione spat out, giving a glare towards the bored brunette. Medea laughed, "Yeah! The dirt police! Like, excuse me, miss, do you know how fast your dirt was going?" She giggle-snorted and hiccupped. Khione gave a disgusted face, shoving Medea away from her and scoffed. Khione gave an annoyed look, "You should've stopped with the dirt police."

Medea widened her eyes and fumbled crossing her arms over her chest, adding in a smug look to Lucy for an extra measure. The brunette just raised an eyebrow, looking uninterested like always whenever the twins were in her presence. _Show no emotion when it comes to Khione and Medea_, Piper thought, _it always works. _

"You should get going, because our mom's looking for you." Khione said, looking at Piper up and down. She chuckled at the brunette's choice of clothes for the day; a white t-shirt with yellow bolded writing saying "**I Only Date Bad Boys**" and a pair of jeans, followed by her signature side braid with a feather and her black converse. _So simple. And yet so ugly!_ screamed Khione's thoughts. _It definitely suits a bitch like her._

Piper blinked, her eyes widened a bit. Pushing off the car door, Piper spoke, "Well, where is she?"

Medea answered. "She's at home, baking."

Basking in her own tanning bed, Christina was relaxing. Wearing the tanning goggles, she was laying down with the neon blue lights hitting the surface of her "imperfected skin", releasing all of her stress out and relaxing her entire figure. Yes, today just couldn't get any better-

"You wanted to see me?" Piper said, patiently waiting for her to get out of her reverie. Christina furrowed her eyebrows in irritation and spoke in a peppy voice, "Yes."

Pushing the top up, Christina reached for her towel. Looking back up to Christina, Piper widened her eyes and turned her head away, "Oh my-!" Piper turned her head just in time to not have a scarring image for all of eternity. Seeing her step-mother naked wasn't the best sight to be welcomed with.

Ignoring Piper's gasp of surprise, Christina wrapped the hot pink towel around her body. "Did you finish your errands?" she said, ripping off the goggles and looked at the blonde expectantly. "Because I need you to head to the diner and take the night shift."

Recovering from the initial shock, Piper looked up to Christina, then to her feet. She squirmed under the intense stare Christina was giving her and played with her fingers for a bit. They seemed so interesting at the moment that Piper couldn't rip her eyes away from the slender, cream phalanges that were calloused at some fingertips. Finding the words to say, Piper lifted her head and spoke with an edge of nervousness and uneasiness. "T-tonight's my night off and it's the Halloween dance at school, so-"

Picking at her nails, Christina interrupted Piper, "I know, but you need to stop being so self-centered and start thinking of others. And others need you to go to the diner and mop the floors tonight." Looking back to Piper, she flashed a smile.

"But I really need to go to this dance, Christina. I have to." Piper whined, having a feeling that this would happen. Christina ignored her plea and grabbed the crackers on the table, munching on one. In a muffled voice, Christina said, "You need to earn your tuition money." Shaking her head, she looked up to Piper, "You gotta bus a lot of tables."

Now on the verge of tears, Piper tried a tactic Percy would always say in order to convince her; point out the positive points of your argument. Thinking and racking up some points, Piper quickly blurted them out, "I'm a straight A student. I'm working seven days a week and I'm taking extra AP classes. I never asked you for anything. Please let me go to this dance!"

Christina stared at her for the longest time, minutes flying by. After what felt like an entire hour of just staring, Christina sighed and shook her head. "Sweetheart, now that you're old enough, there's something I've always wanted to tell you, and I think you're ready to hear it." Christina said, smiling at the girl in front of her. A budding flower of hope bloomed in Piper's chest. Piper's eyes lightened and were eager for her answer. _The very first compliment coming out of Christina's mouth and I'm here to witness it._ Piper thought. _How ironic._

Christina took a deep breath, closing her eyes and slowly opened them. She smiled to Piper "Sweetie . . . ." Piper leaned into Christina's bubble, eager to hear what she'll say. "You're not very pretty and you're not very bright."

All of Piper's hopes of Christina went down the drain once the devil woman uttered that sentence to Piper.

And only to Piper.

Tears swelled into Piper's eyes, _No. _Christina smiled, relieved to get such a confession off of her chest. Sighing, she flashed a smile to Piper, "I'm so glad we had that talk." Standing up, she closed the tanning bed and walked past Piper, their shoulders touching for a brief moment before Christina pulled her shoulder away from Piper's.

Pulled back from reality, Piper blinked multiple times to see only that her vision was blurred and her eyes felt like an ocean wave hit her over and over. Her tears, now flowing and cascading down her slightly blushing face, were warm and left a trail of moisture on her cheeks. Rubbing her eyes, Piper didn't sob or cry, but the sound of sniffles from her runny nose were heard. She didn't want to show Christina or her two rotten step-sisters that she was weak. She was stubborn and refused to show any signs of impuissance in front of them. Besides, if she did, that was her breaking point. Her wall of confidence was crumbling down into nothing but rubble and debris.

And at the rate she was going, her wall wasn't gonna hold up anytime soon.

Well….. that was sad…. I just want to PUNCH THAT BITCH CHRISTINA IN THE FACE! Annnnnyyywwaaayyyss R&R! Have a nice day!


	7. Do your thing, girlfriend!

"Man you-" Travis sputtered.

"Scoot over bro." Leo said, sitting in the circular booth. Travis scowled at the curly-haired man, giving him one last glare before settling down in his seat. "See if we can get a bigger table." Silena said, pushing up her glasses while standing up, waiting for everyone to get in their spots.

"Move over!" shouted Drew, shoving Silena and Lacy into the booth to sit next to her boyfriend. Jason glanced at her way for a second, the proceeded to talk to his friends. Silena sighed, shaking her head and looked for something to eat on the menu.

The six perfs, as Piper dubbed them, were in **CHRISTINA'S** in the late hours of night, if you consider 8 at night late. It was Halloween and it was the night of the homecoming dance, where all seniors would dress up in Halloween costumes and a couple would be voted prom king and queen. Cliché much, but everyone went to it.

Piper was working like always, rollerblading around the joint with an air of depression around her. She was holding a box filled with half eaten meals, dirtied spoons, forks and knives and salad dressing dripping off the round edges of many plates and grabbing them while rollerblading around the tables and booths. Remembering earlier today, she had to suppress some tears forming in her eyes. _Honestly, do I want to embarrass myself even further?_

After the fiasco at home, Piper cleaned herself up and decided to suck it up and just do what Christina said, even if she pleaded on her case and never took any days or nights off. She just wanted one night off, one night to enjoy herself for once. But Christina always had crushed her dreams the minute they were formed, no matter what.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the owner of the diner walk right in front of her. Noticing a very familiar statue walking in a neon pink dress drenched in glitter and anything shiny, she snapped out of her thoughts and tried to stop herself from crashing into the walking abomination. Unfortunatly, things didn't go well.

Piper crashed into Christina, dropping all of the dirty dishes all over the floor and falling on her butt. "You're in my way." smirked Christina, who didn't seem to be affected by Piper. She stepped over the sprawled out brunette, who was trying to get back up on her rollerbladed feet. Rachel gave a sympathetic look to Piper, concern swarming through her eyes, but she had a bigger mess to deal with. The devil wearing Prada.

Looking back to Christina, Rachel shot an un-noticed glare to Christina. Scowling, she turned her head to the side to see Melli and Hazel giving heated glares to Christina's back while they were waitressing. Thankfully, Christina was too busy ogling the cash register and stuffing $20 bills down her cleavage when nobody was looking.

Leaning back, Rachel rested her elbow on the ledge of the kitchen window, nudging her head to Hedge, who was working on a new creation of his; salmon pancakes. Hedge looked up, noticing Rachel's line of vision and frowned. Rachel grinned slyly and ushering the two waitresses to come near. Hazel and Melli skated over to Rachel, wondering what did the artist have in mind.

When most of the staff was near, Rachel muttered to the two waitresses and the chef, "Oh it must be Halloween! Look what just flew in. The wicked witch of the valley!" Hedge, Melli and Hazel laughed but covered their fits of giggles with the back of their hands, muffling the noise.

"I'm gonna be picking up Medea and Khione at the Halloween dance. I'll be back by 12 sharp." Christina said, glancing back at Piper before shoving more wads of cash down her dress. Piper muttered an "Okay." before going back to work and silently muttering incoherent words under her breath.

After the joke died down, Rachel told everyone to get back to work and that she'll deal with the bleach-blonde at the cash register. Walking up to her, Christina didn't notice Rachel till the very last second, where Rachel watched with hateful eyes where the dollars were going. "Still got room in there, huh?" the curly redhead said, loud enough for Christina to hear.

Christina looked up from the cash register to the manager of **CHRISTINA'S** and scowled, "Well, if it isn't little Betty Crocker from the 'hood?" Adjusting her breasts, she continued, "Don't you have something to do, like cleaning toilets?"

Posing in a thinking pose, Rachel responded, "You know, I would, but I'm too busy running this place. But, be my guest!"

"I'm sorry; I can't, because I just got a $150 manicure. Silver palm trees." Wiggling her fingers, she showed Rachel her fingernails with the shiniest shade of pink and silver. Rachel cooed sarcastically, "Oh, poor baby!" Smiling sickenly sweet, Christina started to walk away from the register and towards the door.

"Keep it up, Christina, and I'm gonna find a place to put my $6 pedicure." Rachel said, following Christina. Christina turned around to say something back when she noticed a detail that she wouldn't stand.

"Where're your skates? That's part of the uniform!" Christina spat out, stepping forward dangerously close to Rachel's annoyed face. Rachel scoffed again, "Rachel, if I wanted to look like a clown, I'd join the circus."

"If you were a part of my circus, I'd have you clean elephant butts with a Wet One." Rachel squinted her eyes, almost to her breaking point. Christina continued, "I don't think you realize that I could-"

"Fire me? Oh, please, go right ahead. And let's see how many customers you have when you do."

Christina's face paled for a second before she narrowed her eyes and stood up straight. "I'm a very appealing person." Giving one last defeated glare, she huffed and turned around, walking through the diner door with a slam, making some customers jump from the unexpected noise. "Yeah, in your head." Rachel muttered, walking into the kitchen with Piper, who was filling up napkin dispensers.

"I'm a very appealing person." "I'm a very appealing person." Both the red and the brunette said in an exaggerated voice, imitating Christina. Rachel scoffed, "That woman could make a nun swear."

Piper side glanced at Rachel, "I'm graduating a year early so I can be 3,000 miles away in Princeton."

Pointing a finger to Piper, Rachel said, "You can go to the University of Mars and it still wouldn't be far enough." Piper nodded, smiling a bit.

Skating her way into the kitchen, Hazel noticed the brunette and poked her side. Jumping, Piper turned to Hazel, who looked like she was a nervous wreck. "Honey, I'm desperate!" the brunette squealed, holding two plates in each hand. "Can you cover that back booth?" Glancing her eyes to the group in the back of the diner, Hazel watched as Piper widened her eyes.

"We're waiting!" whined Lacy, stretching her back.

"I don't think I can eat anything here." muttered Drew, who was looking over the menu with distasteful eyes.

Piper turned around quickly, "But-!" Hazel wasn't behind her anymore. So that left her with serving the six perfs. Sighing, Piper slowly grabbed a pen and paper and skated her way to the group of teens.

"I have the feeling I won't be able to get a Zone meal here." said Lacy, glancing over Drew's shoulder. "I already ate." Silena sighed, flipping her hair back behind her shoulders. Chuckling, Travis said, "Laxatives don't qualify as a food group." Silena glared at Travis. _He just loves to push my buttons!_ Silena smirked, "Surprised you didn't know that." Leo sighed, enough with the jokes that Travis was pulling, "Stop it."

Drew looked up from the menu to see Piper skate over to their table. She smirked, "Well, if it isn't diner girl?"

Piper smiled un-enthusiastically, "What can I get you guys?"

Looking down at the menu, Drew muttered, "What can I get here that has no sugar, no carbs and is fat free?"

Cocking her hip to the side, Lucy crossed her arms, "Water."

The guys laughed, finding the joke very funny. "Water. Feisty." Jason chuckled, shaking his head. Drew glared at Jason, "Was that supposed to be a joke?" Jason looked at Drew, holding his hands up in surrender, "It was funny."

Shaking her head Drew looked back to the waitress that was waiting. "I'll have a Voss." she said, giving her menu to Piper. Piper gave a confused face, "Excuse me?"

Silena said, "It's water from Norway." Giving a small smile to Piper, Silena sat up. Piper gave a small smile in return but not before hearing Lacy's comment. "She's the worst." she said, rolling her eyes.

Tapping her pen on the wad of paper, Piper said, "Sorry but we only have water from the valley."

Drew blinked, "Oh, well, then I'll have an iced-tea."

"Make that two and I'm still waiting on that breakfast burrito diner girl." Travis snickered, Leo chuckling at his joke. Piper rolled her eyes and turned around to get their order. "See you."

"Thank you!" muttered Jason. Drew scoffed, "Ugh, she is SO not getting a tip."

Jason sighed and mustered all of his courage to finally say what he wanted to say. "Drew, we really need to talk. Privately." Glancing around the table, he noticed Leo giving him a small nod of his head, acknowledging the conversation earlier today.

"Anything you say to me, you can say in front of my peeps." Drew smiled. Excluding Jason and Drew, everyone at their table leaned in, anxious to hear "big news" coming from Jason. It was deadly quiet at their table, making Jason look around and mutter an "Okay."

"I wanna break up."

Drew's eyes widened ten-fold, unexpected by what Jason said. "What?!" she screeched, coming back down from Earth. Inside, Jason was secretly jumping for joy and laughing his ass off when he saw Drew's face. _Hilarious!_ "That was harsh." Travis whistled, smiling and shaking his head. Leo was merely frozen before awaking from his daydream and finally the words settled in. _So that's what he meant . . . . _

Drew spat out the next thing running through her mind out quickly, "Are you in love with somebody else?!" Jason grinned, shaking his head up and down, "I think so."

Travis and Leo stared at Jason. "No way!" Travis said, punching Jason's shoulder in encouragement. "What? Who, bro?" Leo questioned, wondering if this was the same girl that Jason was talking about when they were at football practice. Jason shook his head, "I don't know."

Remembering Drew was still next to him, Jason turned around, laying his attention on Drew, "But we could still be-" "**Don't** say the word 'friends'. Fortunately for you, I'm gonna overlook this mental breakdown of yours." Drew interrupted Jason. Jason thought she was only trying to convince herself that they were still a couple, but it looked like it wasn't working out for her.

"Look, just chill out. We're gonna go get ready for the dance and I'll see you there!" Drew flashed a shaky smile. Silena, at that point, was out of the booth already and standing, while Lacy was scooting out of the booth with Drew pushing her way out of the seats. Travis muttered a "Later." to the girls and Leo watched them leave.

Leo nodded his head, "That went well, bro." Travis interrupted him, "No, she took it well." Jason grinned, nodding his head in agreement. "Good looking out." Jason said. Noticing Piper returning with their drinks, Leo and Travis squirmed their way out of the booth and passed Piper, Travis muttering "Later diner girl." followed with Leo saying, "Too late!" Leaving the diner, Piper turned around, watching the two boys exiting the diner.

Jason rose out of his seat, reaching into his pocket. "Don't worry about it." Piper said, giving him a weary smile and walking back into the kitchen. Jason sighed and took his hand out of his pocket and shook his head, walking out of **CHRISTINA'S** but not before passing a guy in his costume. Rachel sighed, looking to Piper, "You know, those kids reminded me why I used to fight in school." Taking a swing at the wine bottle used for cooking, she smiled to Piper.

"Have no fear!"

Piper and Rachel looked to the entrance of the diner, the rest of the remaining customers looking to the entrance as well. Piper smiled weakly, seeing a certain raven-haired man with familiar sea-green eyes in an all-black costume standing and striking a pose.

"Zorro is here!" Percy shouted. Speed-walking to Piper and Rachel, Percy excitedly said, "And he's got the keys to his dad's Mercedes!" Leaning over the counter separating the tow brunettes, Percy looked over her clothes. "You're going dressed as a bus girl?" he said in a worried tone.

Piper sighed, cleaning the surface of the countertop, "Percy, I'm not going." Percy's eyes widened once he heard her, "What do you mean you're not going?!" He was about to walk behind the counter when Rachel shooed him away, reminding him that it was employees only. "Okay, sorry. Sorry. What about cyber dude?" Percy said, moving his hands in exasperation. Rachel blinked, "Cyber dude?"

She smiled, "That the boy who's been sending you love notes?"

Piper gave her an annoyed look, "They're not love notes. They're e-mails."

Rachel scoffed, "If a man's taking his time to write down his feelings for you, it's a love note." She grinned even more, ecstatic that something like this was happening to Piper, "You've got a secret admirer~!"

"And he wants to meet her tonight at the dance." Percy added in, a devious smile etched on his face. Piper widened her eyes, giving him a glare knowing very well what Rachel was gonna do.

Rachel's eyes widened and shouted, "What are you still doing here?!"

"I'm obeying orders." Piper replied, looking at her for a moment before going back to work.

" Piper, this is your true love!" Percy said, hoping Lucy would change her mind.

"Well true love's gonna have to wait."

Now it was Rachel's time to scoff, "Oh, girl, save all that drama for the soap operas. You are going to that dance!"

Percy leaned on the countertop, shaking his hands in emphasis, "Go ahead, girlfriend!" Rachel shot him a look.

"I can't go. Christina would kill me and then bring me back to clean up the mess." Piper sighed, looking at her best friend and then at Rachel.

Rachel scowled, "She's gonna have to go through me to hurt you."

"Go girlfriend. Do your thing." Percy said, smirking at her. Rachel looked at him again, "Call me 'girlfriend' one more time."

Percy jumped back and muttered, "Okay, sorry."

Rachel gave him one last look before looking at Piper, " Piper, your dad did not leave this Earth wanting you to be unhappy. It's time to start finding your own bliss, starting with this dance." She smiled encouragingly. Piper smiled back in return.

"Piper," said girl turned to the kitchen, seeing Hedge had stopped his working and listened in on the conversation, "you need to listen to Rachel. You're always studding, always working. Take some time for yourself." Piper smiled.

"Yeah! Why don't you go out and bust a move?" Melli mentioned. "Put your freak on!" Hedge said. Melli giggled, "Whatever it is you kids do these days." Piper grinned, _You guys . . . ._

Piper nodded her head in realization, agreeing with the staff and Percy, "You know what? You guys are right. I never do anything for myself."

"No, you don't!"

"True!"

"And I deserve to have some fun." Piper said, dropping her dish towel on the counter.

"That's right!"

"Yeah!"

"I am gonna go to that dance!" Percy grinned once Piper said that. _She finally realizes . . . ._

"Okay, great!"

"And I'm gonna meet my true love and I'm gonna dance all night!" Everyone shouted in agreement, happy that their little Piper that they've all known and grown up with is finally doing something she wants.

Piper was grinning and smiling about what she said, excited to go to the Halloween dance. Her smiled faltered, remembering the key component she needed for the dance. "I can't go." she said tiredly, leaning on the counter. Rachel widened her eyes, "What?"

Piper looked to everyone's faces, "I don't have a costume." Dropping her hands to her sides, she scratched her hair that was in a loose bun. The staff's smiles saddened, remembering why Percy was dressed in a Zorro costume for a reason. Suddenly Rachel's face lightened up. She smiled, "But you will." Walking towards the back of the diner, she grabbed her coat off the rack and put it on. Grabbing her blue purse, she shouted to Percy, "You coming, Zorro?"

Percy grinned, grabbing Piper's hand and holding his free hand with his keys, he yelled, "Yes ma'am!"

Omg it's weird to think that Percy would tell Rachel to "Do her thing, girlfriend" I died of laughter at that part I hope you guys enjoy this! BYE!


	8. which costume!

Running downtown on Halloween getting a last minute costume wasn't on Piper's bucket list. _Maybe I should've just forgot the costume and just go as a bus girl like Percy said,_ Piper thought, _But then again, I DO wanna get a costume and not look like a total loser . . . . _

Turning a sharp corner, Rachel chirped a high pitch sound when she saw the store she was looking for. "Yes!" she sang, running even faster than before, making Percy and Piper go out in a full sprint just catching up with the manager.

Thalia was turning her "OPEN" sign to the "CLOSED" sign on her shop door, finally relieved that her shift was over and that no one else was gonna buy a costume. _Whoever thinks they're gonna get a costume at this hour is crazy_, Thalia sighed, relaxing her tense shoulders. Turning around to walk to the countertop, she only took one step and God didn't want to be on her side. _Oh, no!_ she thought when she heard a mantra of banging outside the shop door.

"Thalia!" Rachel shouted, banging and yelling outside the local costume shop named "**Thalia's Take-Over Shop**". She widened her eyes when Thalia's back was facing her. "Thalia! Thalia!" she screamed, smiling and jumping up and down in her spot. By the time Rachel realized that Thalia was inside, Piper and Percy caught up to the ecstatic red-head, bending over their knees to catch their breath.

Thalia turned around, seeing Rachel outside her door. Huffing, Thalia walked over to the glass door and pointed to the closed sign, giving an annoyed face to the manager. "Thalia, Piper needs a costume!" Rachel exclaimed, staring at Thalia with a pleading look. The Blackr-haired woman shook her head, "No, no Rachel. I am closed."

Rachel gave the woman a puppy dog face, pulling out her lower lip and giving her the biggest pair of green eyes anyone has seen. Thalia looked at her, confused as to why Rachel was going to such lengths just to buy one silly costume. Rachel frowned, seeing as her last minute plan didn't work. Thalia was a regular at **CHRISTINA'S**, so why . . . ?

An idea popped into Rachels mind and she smiled, "Come on, I'll give you free breakfast for a week." _Everyone likes free breakfast, right?_ Thalia blushed, embarrassed at the fact Rachel knew she wouldn't give up on such an offer, _How low does she think I'll go?_

Thalia looked outside, turning her head to her left and right. Knowing that no one was around, Thalia looked back to the red head, who was holding her breath on the black-haired's answer. Sighing she wouldn't get out of this so easy, Thalia searched her pockets before finding the shop's key. Looking up to Rachel, she said, "Make it a month."

Rachel's eyes widened once she heard the familiar "click" of the lock, giddiness flowing her veins. Turning back to Percy and Piper, she grabbed their hands, the raven haired and the brunette eyes widening when they were shoved into the store. Thalia chuckled at Rachel's behavior, _She never changes . . ._

Walking up to the closest costume rack, Rachel searched through the costumes, "There's gotta be something here . . . " Piper and Percy followed Rachel's actions, walking further in the store for Piper's perfect costume. Percy shifted his hands through the racks of costumes on the second level of the store, looking at each and every costume. No of them so far looked like something Piper would wear. Until one caught his eye. Percy blinked his eyes, an evil glint sparked in his mind, "There's this one."

Shouting down to Piper, Percy smiled, "Hey! Try this one on!" Throwing the costume down to Piper, Percy laughed when Piper fumbled when catching the flying clothing. Piper scowled at Percy, giving him a glare, before looking over the costume. The only color that was visible to the naked eye was a dark purple, the fabric turning a different shade of violet every time Piper moved the mysterious choice of clothing. Looking at the model on the inside of the plastic packaging, the brunette cringed. _What in the world IS this?_ Piper thought wearily.

"Oh! You have a costume?" Rachel said, the brunette jumping out of her skin when Rachel popped out of nowhere. "Well, try it on!"

Piper sighed, "Rachel, I didn't choose this. Percy did."

Shrugging her shoulders, Rachel pushed the girl to the nearest changing room, "Well, I want to see it! C'mon!"

"But Rachel-!"

Piper turned and met with the black fabric being the only thing in between her and Percy, Rachel and the employee, Thalia. _Damn you Rachel . . . _

After a moment of settling into the . . . . _Costume_ Piper looked over herself. She paled, _Percy I hope you know what you're getting into. _"Alright Piper! Let's see it!" Percy said, grinning on how much fun this was going to be.

Piper hesitantly took a step forward before going out in a full blown walk. Pushing the black curtain back, Piper walked forward to her friend and coworker.

Percy laughed, "Perfect!"

Rachel paled incredibly white, "No way."

Piper was dressed in a skin-tight purple body suit, looking like a sea nematode when you added in the fins on her wrists and the back of her calves. Antennas were attached to her costume, making the blonde look like a bad remake of the movie, "The Little Mermaid".

Piper's face was flushed, red from either embarrassment or anger. Whichever it was, Piper knew one thing; she was SO gonna get revenge on Percy. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, right?

Turning around, Piper huffed and walked into the dressing room, only to meet a stack of different costumes sky high. _Thalia must've done this!_ Piper thought. She smiled at the thought, _So considerate. _

Quickly, Piper slipped out of the nematode/whatever-the-hell-that-costume-was and into the next set of clothes. Putting on a brave face, Piper walked out of the dressing room.

Piper was wearing a girlier version of a Spanish matador, the colors black and pink clashing with the hot pink cape flowing from her right shoulder from what Rachel saw. The brunette's eye twitched, _What the hell . . . ?_

Ignoring Rachel's look of disgust, Piper realized one thing when she saw Percy in front of her; Percy was having too much fun in the costume store. On his head was a headband of a plastic knife, which looked like it was stabbed through his head. Had you not look any closer, you'd think he would've died from this "disastrous blow to the head". Looking up, Percy smiled and pointed to his head, "Hey, you're killing me here!"

Piper slapped her forehead, _Seriously? _

While waiting for Piper's next "interesting" outfit Rachel looked around the store. Many gags and ghoulish things were hanging from the ceiling, most of them being giant spider webs and glow-in-the-dark faces that you could stick to your bedroom window to scare off some little "trick-or-treaters" passing by. Looking a little downwards, the second level of the store was your basic costumes, such as ghosts or a witch or even a simple pirate. And the ground level of the store was for the newest costumes, with the best fake blood drizzled over an assortment of costumes and the plastic molded face masks for being Chuckie or Scream.

Just as Rachel was going to reminisce on her childhood memories, Piper appeared, wearing a Porky Pig costume. Just for laughs, Piper smiled and turned around, shaking her butt and yelling the familiar "Ba-de-Ba-de-Ba-de-Ba-de" stutter of the old-time classic cartoon character. Rachel laughed, clapping her hands while Percy and Thalia laughed along as well.

Piper grinned behind the giant head, happy that now everyone was enjoying themselves. She didn't want to be a bother to Thalia or Rachel. They took the trouble to do this for her, so what better way to say thanks by giving them a laugh? Although Piper wanted to repay them, the only thing she could do was enjoy the moment and try to have fun. It was working, but she knew this wasn't gonna be enough.

Shaking her head, Piper walked back to the dressing room.

Nun attire, a Hawaiian hula girl outfit and a kimono costume later, Piper finally gave up right after she appeared Rachel and Percy in a knight in armor costume. "Rachel, this is hopeless!" Piper exasperated, the helmet front sliding down with a slam. "Oof!" the brunette muttered, stepping backwards while holding her metal-encased hands on her helmet.

Rachel sighed, leaning on the glass counter top Looking inside the glass, there were an assortment of fake party jewelry spread all over the inside. Different scraps of fabric were spread at random and a variety of masquerade masks were displayed.

One particular mask stood out from the rest; decorated in white lace with a cream background and little silver beads stitched on the delicate fabric, the masquerade mask was the kind of mask that covered only the eyes and wrapped around the users head with a thin, elastic band. It was simple, but beautiful to the eye.

Rachel stood straighter, tapping her slender fingers on the glass display case. "Thalia, let me see that mask," the red head said, her light, green eyes narrowing only on the beautiful mask. Thalia noticed Rachel's line of vision and opened the display case, taking out the mask and placing it in Rachel's hands. Thalia shifted her feet, twiddling her fingers while watching Rachel take interest with the mask, "I don't have an outfit that goes with that."

"Yeah, but I do." Rachel said, her plump lips curving into a soft smile.

Percy looked at his cell phone, glancing at the device now and then. Whistling an unknown tune, he looked around the dark neighborhood, kids running around with candy-filled pillow bags and parents walking slowly behind them. Slapping the steering wheel, Percy started to make a concert band of noises from the interior of his father's car. He was bored and waiting for two women that were going to do a make-over to Lucy was going to take a while.

Inside Rachel's house, Piper looked around the living room, glancing at the different sized photo frames with people unknown and looking at the wicker seats. After Rachel bought the mask, Piper and Percy drove over to Rachel's house, where supposedly Piper's costume was at her house hidden in the depths of her closet. Piper and Percy didn't want to question the red head so they just went along with the idea, hoping it wasn't gonna be something crazy.

Noticing many varied necklaces on one of the end tables, Piper sat down on the sofa and leaned over to get a better look at them. They were simple necklaces, all of them had a similar array of beads and small keys or pendants hanging from them. _Pretty_, Piper thought.

Hearing Rachel's footsteps approaching closer and closer, Piper smiled, "Rachel, you sure do have a knack for taking something simple and making it beautiful."

As Rachel walked into the room, she was holding a large pink box with black cursive writing on the top. "Well, you aint seen nothing yet." she replied, sitting next to the brunette teen with a smile. Placing the box on the coffee table in the middle of the room, she sighed, "I was saving this dress for my next attempt down the aisle."

Piper looked at Rachel, shocked that she was going to get married for a second time. Keyword; was.

"Long story," Rachel said, her hands raised up in a surrendering position. Smiling at the brunette, Rachel took off the cover and ripped off another cover, one that had a plastic oval shape that would let the customer take a peek at the dress. Rachel's eyes widened, looking at the dress and whispered, "It's beautiful!" It was a beautiful dress indeed, definitely made for a woman like Rachel who had a bit of sass and slyness and also a pinch of flair and simplicity to balance it out.

Piper's smile turned upside down, shaking her head towards the dress. "Rachel, I can't wear that."

Said woman looked at Piper, "Yes, you can. And you will." Pointing to the dress, Rachel said, "That dress has been in that box so long, it deserves a night out."

Piper looked back to Rachel, who was staring at the brunette. Glancing back at the dress, Piper contemplated with herself; should she or should she not? Although she did deserve a night out, Piper didn't think that her manager and mother-figure for 10 years would go to this exaggerating extent to help her out. Did she really deserve this?

In the back of her mind, a small voice was saying to her to go to that dance in that extravagant dress and party all night and have fun, while the other was to go to the dance as a diner girl, a freak, a loser of Ancients.

_No,_ Piper thought, _Rachel and Percy would not want me to waste my only free time to enjoy myself as the way I'm dressed now. They went through so much trouble for me. Me, Diner Girl, Piper McLean. _Sighing, Piper opened her eyes, a glint of something different glittering in her kaleidoscope orbs_, I need to do this. For them and for myself._

Piper slowly nodded her head to the box, a small smile forming on her face. "Let's go!" she grinned, determined, set eyes eagerly wanting to have fun for such a long time. Rachel grinned at the brunette.

"This is gonna look so good on you!" squealed Rachel, nudging her right shoulder with Piper's left. Laughing, Piper and Rachel took out the dress and started the make-over on the giddy brunette.

Honestly, this chapter kinda bored me :/ I mean it's kinda a filler chapter…. At least to me, anyways give me your opinion on it! Bye bye!


	9. The arrival

The loud music emitting from the hotel were vibrating to the extent of a single person almost feeling the vibrations through the ground. Teenagers from all around were running and laughing with glee that it was sickening to the public, but they didn't care. It was the night of their lives; they were seniors, it was the climax of their teenage lives.

Inside the hotel, splurges of students were in their cliques on the dance floor. Strobe lights were flashing and the dance floor was lighting up with neon colors. The music was blasting and the petite DJ was scratching the records with immense ferocity, obviously dedicated to her part-time job. The brunette was bobbing her head to the beat and was about to start a new song when one of the teachers nodded his head to her, signaling to introduce the dance to the seniors.

The girl sighed and gave her best smile to the plethora of students. Grabbing her headphones off her ears, she smirked, "Welcome, Ancients, to the Halloween homecoming dance. My name is Katie, your DJ for the night. Tonight, our panel of esteemed teachers will use their higher education to choose our homecoming prince and princess." A loud yell of whoops and shrieks responded the students, smiles on their faces and the slight sprinkle of alcohol running through their veins.

Katie smiled, "In true Long Island fashion, it's not about who you are. It's about what you wear! Are you ready to crank it up?!" The brunette grinned when everyone shouted in response. Turning up the music, Katie placed her headphones back on her ears and once again bobbed her head, her curly brown hair in a messy but cool disarray.

Climbing down the staircase, twin sisters Medea and Khione walked down the stairs, trudging and groaning in displease. Khione scowled, "I cannot believe I put you in charge of costumes. I told you Siamese cats, not Siamese _twins_!" Just as Khionel said, the twins decided to be Siamese cats, trying to pull off a sexy and desirable look. But in an unfortunate event, Karen had bought a Siamese cat costume, fit for _two_ people.

The costume was joined together where the costume would be split if it was separated into two, and cream and dark brown fur was spread in an array. Covering both their entire bodies except the face, each twin had a set of fake whiskers and a little drawing of a pink kitten nose on their noses. Fake foam claws were attached on their hands, er, _paws_ I should say and on each of their heads were a set of cat ears attached to the costume.

Medea sighed inwardly and snickered, "Are we having a cat fight?" Khione shoved Medea's shoulder, not realizing that it would create a short domino effect. Upon realizing that she would be fall too, Khione tried to regain her standing position. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Medea and Khione fell down the stairs, rolling down in a rickety motion. Knocking over Ancient's sweethearts dressed in a matching salt and pepper shaker costumes, Hazel and Frank fumbled and tripped down the stairs, stopping Medea and Khione. Reaching the last step, the couple sat still before Hazel started to sneeze a storm. Looking down to see that Frank and Hazel were also in the midst of their little brawl, Medea and Khione groaned, annoyed at the fact that they hurt the school's most shy and cutest couple. _I can't wait for the complaints tomorrow . . ._ Khione groaned.

On the dance floor, Travis and Leo stood off to the side, waiting for a certain blonde to finally show up. The trio decided to be dressed up as the Three Musketeers, all in ridiculous dark black wigs, beards and clothing.

Glancing around the room, Leo noticed Jason walking to them, but dressed in something entirely different. Jason looked like he was dressed up as a Prince from a sappy fairy tale. Just looking at his face, he looked distracted, constantly looking around and rubbing his hands together. It almost looked like he was waiting and expecting someone.

Reaching Leo and Travis, Jason grinned at the two for a short moment before glancing around the room once again. "Welcome, guys."

"What up?" Leo said coldly.

"Sorry about your costume getting lost." Travis glared, clearly pissed at one of his friends. They had all agreed to be the Three Musketeers! What was so hard about that?! "It's all good." Jason said, and for the third time that night, rubbed his hands of perspiration, spilling nervousness through his pores.

Travis scowled, grunting in disapproval, "No it's not. We don't get to be the Three Musketeers! You get to be Prince Charming and we're the two wimps in wigs. No scratch that, Leo's the wimp in the wig."

"Hey!" Leo shouted, giving a menacing glare to Travis, who was snickering at the curly-haired teen. Travis looked around the dance floor, noticing the very intriguing DJ-ist scratching the records. Katie, pumping up the volume slowly, noticed that the captain of the cheerleading squad and her posse were climbing down the stairway. Pointing the spotlight to the stairs, Jason, Leo and Travis's eyes followed the white light.

Drew, Lacy and Silena stood proud and smug at the top of the stairs. Some catcalls were shouted and whistles from testosterone-induced boys as the trio had fixed their costumes.

All three of the popular girls were dressed as white angels, with silver halos hanging above their heads. Silver glitter was dusted on their eyelids, while pink lipstick was spread across their desirable lips. Their dresses had reached mid-thigh and were just enough to be considered acceptable wear and clear sequins were sewn on each of their whiter-than-bleach costumes. Flipping back their voluminous hair, they fixed their makeup while cocking their hips off to the side and slightly glanced around for their supposed "dates".

Leo and Travis kept on staring at the group, while Jason scoffed and turned his head to the dance floor, his mind wandering off to Princetongirl818.

"Take the cape off already! You look amazing!" Percy hissed to Piper, who was shaking in her silver heels and a black cape covering her costume. "I'm sorry, I'm just freaking out here!" exclaimed Piper, giving a small glare to the raven-dressed-as-Zorro.

Percy gave Piper a soft smile and placed his hands on her shaking form, "Listen, it's gonna be okay." He gave her his best smile and waited before she had responded with the corners of her mouth spreading across her face. "Hurry up, it's almost 11." he said, rubbing her shaking form and started to tug on her wrist.

"Percy wait." Said man stopped and listened as Piper said the following words, "Remember, I have to be back in the diner by 12, okay?"

Percy gave her a dumbfounded look before processing Piper's sentence. Snapping his fingers, Percy held out his calloused hand and said, "Okay give me your cell phone. Come on, cell phone."

Piper bent her knees and lifted up her dress, revealing her silver heels and her cell phone and lightning keychain attached to the shoe. Unhooking the night-sky blue cell phone, Piper stood back up and reluctantly handed Percy her cell phone. Percy immediately grabbed the device and started to press many buttons at inhuman speed.

"Okay. Alright, I'm going to set the alarm at quarter to 12, okay." Percy said, his eyes never leaving the tiny screen. Piper muttered an "Okay." and took back her cell phone, placing it back on her shoe.

"Alright, there. Now give me the cape." the raven-haired boy spoke, "Come on, it's time."

Katie was jamming to her beats, bobbing her head and small body until the upbeat and jumpy song was over. By staff request, she was supposed to do a slow song every five jumpy and popular beats were played, to her recollection. She didn't mind that she had to change the songs to a different pace; it was just the fact that if the last song was a good song, she'd be ticked. Sighing, Katie looked through her CD collection, flipping through CD after CD until she saw the song she was looking for. She smiled softly and slowly turned down the last song and installed the CD, making it sound like it was a fading-in transition.

The audience noticed the current song was no longer playing and a slow song started to play. Dancing slowly and less enthusiastically, the couples of Ancients High were dragged out onto the dance floor. Well, it was more like the girl's forced their male partners to dance, as the males looked prominently paler than usual.

_Woke up around a half past ten, can't believe I'm late again_

_I put down 'bout a quart of caffeine to start my pulse and then_

As the song started to begin, some interested eyes looked to the staircase, said people including Drew, Lacy and Silena. Drew visibly frowned and stared with angry eyes at the person slowly walking to the edge of the top of the staircase.

_I grabbed my jeans off the floor then I hit the door_

_Just the same old same_

Percy walked down the staircase, reaching the bottom of the stairs while fixing his cape with fumbling fingers. Looking up to the giant crowd, he noticed many eyes were watching a figure approached the dance while dancing with their alleged partners. He sweat-dropped at the scene, eyes glancing over the room.

_It just goes to show, you never know when everything's 'bout to change_

"Piper, what are they all staring at?" Percy said, looking up to the stairs and watching Piper slowly walk to the first step.

As said brunette was able to be seen by the crowd, most of the dance floor was watching her. Piper's eyes shifted nervously under her lacy white and cream mask. She wasn't used to all of this attention, which made her heart accelerate into hyper drive.

_Just another day_

_Started out like any other_

Piper looked down to her dress, her mind thinking that something was wrong with what she was wearing.

Her dress, well more like Rachel's, was beautiful and extravagant in every way. The wedding dress was strapless, clinging to her curvaceous body and had passed Piper's ankles to drag on the ground slightly. White lace was sewn into the bust part of the dress. Under the bust, there was an assortment of white beads sewn and looked like they were in rows from afar, but were actually little beads sewn to form little flowers. The beads continued their pattern until Piper's waist, where the skirt of the dress started to flow like a ballroom gown. Instead of the skirt being poufy, the tulle of the dress was more settled and prominent. The dress was exactly Rachel; bit of sass and slyness on the design of the dress and also a pinch of flair and simplicity on the structure and materials of the dress.

_Simply beautiful in every way, _Piper thought. Looking back up, her eyes met with the many shell shocked faces of Ancient High. Grabbing the ends of her dress, she started to climb down the stairway, which was covered in glittering lights and lit pumpkins sat on the side of each stair.

_Just another girl_

_Who took my breath away_

Leo sighed at the trio of cheerleaders. Looking away from Drew, Lacy and Silena, he looked down to the dance floor, noticing with keen eyes that some people stopped dancing and were looking at something at the top of the stairs. Following everyone's object of attention, Leo gaped his mouth. Staring at the girl, he nudged Travis. Travis grunted and followed Leo's eyes to hit on a girl wearing a dress. He blinked and then turned to Jason, who was looking at him with a face of confusion. Travis smirked and pointed up to the top of the stairs.

What Jason saw hit him real hard in the face. There was a brown haired woman standing at the top of the stairway, wearing an extravagant dress which sparkled in the glistening spotlight. She looked as if she was looking for someone, her eyes grazing the crowd for someone. _Princetongirl818?_ Jason wondered. His mind slowly started to process that the girl at the top of the stairs could possibly be her. His eyes widened and he quickly bounced on his feet and started to walk to her, his eyes drowning in her complexion and company.

_Then she turned around_

_She took me down_

Slowly climbing down the stairs, Piper fixed her mask before grabbing the ends of her dress and took each step.

_Just another day that I_

_Had the best day of my life_

Reaching the bottom of the stairway, Piper stood next to Percy and awkwardly started to fuss with her dress, nervousness running through her like a tremor. Percy smiled warmly at her.

Off on the sidelines, Drew grimaced and glared at the girl, "Love her dress. I hate her."

After everyone was done with the stares and glares at Piper, Percy grabbed her hand and dragged her to the middle of the dance floor, where a silver, shining disco ball was glistening and spinning in a steady pace.

"Piper, don't worry okay? Any guy would be completely insane not to like you, all right?" Percy smiled at his best friend. He chuckled when she started to look around in nervousness. "I'm just gonna be standing right over here, okay?"

Piper nodded and watched as Percy walked away towards the punch table to "eat some grub", as he would say. As Percy left, Piper felt all alone in the mass of laughing, dancing forms. This was not her kind of atmosphere.

"Do you know you're standing precisely in the middle of the dance floor?" a voice said from behind. Piper turned around and her eyes widened. The voice continued its little spiel, "Fate has brought us together right here at this anointed hour under the shimmering disco ball."

Hehehehehe cliff hanger! :P until next time!


	10. a Disco ball and a Meeting

"I have traveled through time and space to find you."

"Dan?!" Piper exclaimed, turning their attention to the brunette. Dan was dressed in a knight in shining armor costume, with a sword at his side and no helmet. His armor clanked when he walked towards Piper, who were still surprised at the boy who never went to after-school activities.

"Yes, 'tis I!" Dan yelled, kneeling down on one foot and taking Piper's hand to kiss it. Lucy blanched when there was leftover spittle on the back of her hand. Pulling his lips away from her hand, Dan smiled, "Now, join me in the mating dance of L.O.V.E.!"

_Love?!_ Piper's eyes widened a bit when Dan started to dance around her, contorting his body to the letters of the word "LOVE". "D-Dan, that's nice of you . . . " Piper started, but faltered immediately when some eyes were on her and Dan. A couple of people chuckled and laughed at the two, or more likely Dan. Piper was just standing under the disco ball, turning herself around when Dan would "dance" behind her. Piper sighed, closing her eyes and trying to tune out the blasting and booming music.

Off on the sidelines, Medea and Khione were standing on the staircase, watching as a group formed around the mysterious girl, the dancing freakazoid, Khione squinted her eyes, having a slight tug on her gut. "Hey, I know that girl somewhere . . ." Medea muttered, looking at the surrounding people. Khione glanced at Medea, then muttered something on the lines of, "Idiot." and more incoherent words.

Dan noticed Piper wasn't looking at him with closed eyes. Taking this opportunity, Dan grabbed the girl's hand and spun her around, waking her up in her reverie. Piper's eyes opened immediately when she felt the world spinning and colors seemed to become blurs and splotches in her vision. The world stopped spinning and Piper felt relieved for a second, before the feeling of falling into someone's arms scared her. The next moment, she was face to face with maroon colored eyes.

"I-I'm thirsty. I gotta get some punch." Piper said, the color in her face returning once Dan pulled away from the close distance. "Some libations for the fair maiden?" Dan said.

"Your wish is my command!" Dan said, running over to the punch table. Leaving Piper alone once again on the dance floor. Piper sighed, fixing her mask and looked down to her feet, ruffling her dress. "I knew this was too good to be true." the girl muttered, curling a finger around one of the curls of her brown hair and closed her eyes.

"Princeton Girl?"

Piper's eyes shot open and she stood frozen, realizing who was behind her. She slowly turned around, her eyes very cautious and her body hesitant.

But there he was, in the flesh. Standing before her was the school's famous football player; the ever-so-amazing-

"Jason Grace?" Piper said, giving a questioning look to the blonde dressed in a princely outfit. "You're Nomad?"

Scratching the back of his neck, he bashfully looked at her, "Yeah, I guess my costume doesn't do . . ."

"No, I know exactly who you are." Piper spat out, giving a slight glare, then sighed, "I'm sorry. This was a really big mistake. I've gotta go." Picking the end of her dress she started to walk out and off of the dance floor. Jason stood in his place, shocked that PrincetonGirl818 didn't want to meet him as much as he wanted to meet her. Watching her leave had struck through him like lightning, and before he knew it, he was catching up to her. "Wait!"

Piper smiled bitterly; _I knew I shouldn't have come._ Picking up her pace, she almost reached the stairs. So close!

"Wait, wait!" Jason shouted, finally catching up to her. He grabbed her elbow and held on it like it was his lifeline, but he loosened his grip when he was reminded that this was a person. "Wait, it's not a mistake."

"Don't you know who I am?" Piper said, her eyebrows wrinkling upwards and her eyes filled with worry and concern. Jason looked at her, mirroring her look, "Of course I do. You're Princeton Girl. You're the girl I've been waiting to meet. I know who you are." He leaned towards Piper, squinting his eyes before pulling away from her face, "What's your name?"

Piper's heart dropped.

"Your sweet libations, my lady." Dan said. Noticing that Lucy was in distress, Dan looked over to the second male in front of him. Fixing his posture, Dan cleared his throat, "Mr. Grace." Said guy nodded to Dan. "Jason Grace with my Lady. A devastating blow, but a worthy opponent." Dan breathed, holding in his loathe for Jasonat the moment. Sighing, Dan looked to Lucy and bowed, turned back to the dance floor and disappeared in the dancing sea of people.

Lucy looked back at Jason, her eyes glancing at Drew every so often, "What about your girlfriend?"

Jason smiled, "It's over."

Lucy wrinkled her eyebrows, face covered in confusion. Jason's smiled dropped, his head glanced to his clothes and he chuckled, "I guess you were expecting some guy who hangs out at Starbucks, and writes poetry, right?"

"Something like that." Piper smiled, blushing a little when his eyes looked up through his eyelashes. Piper sighed once Jason still hadn't looked convinced, "Come on, you're Jason Grace. You're football captain and student body president," she gestured to him with a pained smile, "And closet poet? You can't be both guys."

Jason stood up straight, "I'm not."

"Then who are you?" Piper looked at Jason, watching him as he struggled to say his next sentence.

He started to move his calloused hands, "On September 7th, I wrote you: 'I live in a world full of people pretending to be something they're not. But when I talk to you-"

"I'm the guy I wanna be." The brunette smiled when he grinned a toothy grin.

Jason shrugged his shoulders, "Give me a chance to be that guy." He nudged his head to a nearby exit, "Do you want to join me for a stroll outside?"

Piper giggled and cocked her hip out, crossing her arms and giving a teasing smirk, "If you wanna be voted homecoming prince, you'd better stay inside."

Jason shook his head, "I really don't care about becoming homecoming prince."

The beautiful girl smiled, linked his arm with his and walked outside with the prince, passing by a certain teacher, whom smiled at the two and wrote on the clipboard, voting for the unsuspecting couple.

Now I'm curious… lol well anyways hope you guys like this! Btw, I can't wait to hook up annabeth and Percy :D


	11. Questions and a Fight!

Walking past other couples, Piper and Jason walked side-by-side, a smile on each of their faces. The night sky sparkled with millions of silver lights and constellations smiled down on the two.

The couple reached a garden with green hedges surrounding what looked like an outside wedding, empty and was recently put together. There were rows and rows of cream colored chairs, a center row for the supposed bride and groom and the eye catcher of it all.

Standing in the front was a white gazebo with glittering white lights hung around each post, mint leaves, white roses and various grape vines intertwined with the wires of the lights. Candles were lit and placed on the ledges of the gazebo, along with the fragrance of something sweet; white lilacs and lilies.

Walking down the moistened sidewalk/aisle, Jason looked at Piper with both of his hands behind him, "So, Princeton Girl, would you tell me who you are if I guessed it right?"

Piper looked down to her feet, smiling, "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Jason smiled, "Well, how about we play 20 questions."

"How about 10." Piper said, taking a side glance at the boy across from her.

"I'll take what I can get." he said, clasping his hands, "Okay, first question; you do actually go to Acient High School, right?"

The girl giggled, "Of course."

"Look, I'm just checking," Jason said, holding his hands behind his head, "I mean, you never know with the Internet. Okay, next question. Were you disappointed when you found out that I was Nomad? Be honest." He gave her a look.

She smiled at her feet, "Surprisingly, no."

"Did you vote for me for student body president?"

"Surprisingly, yes." she said, looking up to him.

He blinked in surprise, "Really?" Smiling, Jason thought of the perfect question, "Okay, I got it. Given the choice, would you rather have a rice cake or a Big Mac?"

Piper laughed, almost tripping over her dress, had she not caught herself from falling to the wet concrete, "A Big Mac. But what does that matter?"

"Well, I like a girl with a hearty appetite. And besides, you just eliminated about 50 percent of the girls in our class." Piper grinned. He stopped walking, pausing in the middle of the aisle; halfway to the glistening gazebo and halfway from the garden exit. Piper stopped too, blinking at him when he stared down at her. She blushed when he looked into her eyes. Piper felt like Jason was looking into her very soul; bright, electric blue eyes never wavering from her kaleidoscope orbs.

"You'd think I'd remember those eyes. You're so beautiful." he mumbled unconsciously.

Piper blushed harder, averting her eyes away from his and stared down at her feet, "Next question."

Back in the hotel, Drew looked around the dance floor on the second floor, looking over the ledge every once in awhile for her "prince" whom vanished out of thin air.

"What's up, girl?" Luke said, seeing that the girl just noticed his presence. Drew scoffed, "What are you supposed to be?"

"Babe Ruth."

"You don't look like a candy bar."

"Right." he said, smirking internally at what he was about to say next, "Look, now that you and Jason are toast, why don't we have our own little party." he muttered, cornering the black haired mistress behind a pillar.

"Back off, Luke."

They both turned to the voice, who unexpectedly had gotten between the pinned blonde and the male.

"Annabeth." Luke scowled at the blonde. Annabeth was dressed up in a kimono with her hair pinned up in a sleek ponytail and a sword by her side. Giving the blonde male a glare she said once again, "Back off of her, Luke."

Ignoring the blonde, Luke looked to the popular, "Come on, Drew. I know you like me."

"No. Stop it. No!"

"I know- I know it." he grinned devilishly.

"No, stop it Luke" Annabeth yelled, pushing the male away from Drew and failing.

"Come on."

A person noticed the three, especially the blonde and the black beauty. Determined to stop the male and pointing his sword at Luke, he yelled, "The lady said, 'Stop!'"

"Okay, who the fuck is it now?!" Luke said angrily, turning to a new voice. The new comer was dressed in a Zorro costume, along with a black cape, black eye mask, hat and matching plastic sword attached to his hip.

Smirking, Luke spoke, "Yeah? You want me to stop?" Noticing the sword, he grabbed it out of Zorro's hand, "Give me that!" Bending the plastic sword, Luke broke the utensil in two and grinned evilly when he saw Zorro's face in horror.

"Oh God!" Zorro muttered, a sweat drop sliding down his temple.

"I just saw your life flash before your eyes." Luke smirked.

"Oh, yeah? Well, did you see the part where I run away?" Zorro said, running to the ledge and jumped off to the first floor. Hearing the astonished gasps of bystanders, Zorro stood up quickly and exclaimed, "That was awesome!"

"Oh, you're dead, taco boy!" Luke yelled over the ledge, ignoring Drew and Annabeth, who was shocked at what Zorro did.

Looking to two shocked girls, Zorro tipped his hat before he ran off, "Ladies."

"You're mine!" Luke screamed, catching up to the raven haired Zorro. Running past others, Zorro pushed people out of the way, muttering "Sorrys" left and right. Passing the dance floor, the swordsman saw the bar and ran for it. Jumping on top of the bar, he yelled to the bypassers, "Move over, please!"

Crawling on the countertop and pushing bowls and bowls of chips and dip, Zorro fell on the inside of the bar, trapped. He tried to exit the bar but Luke beat him to it. Luke laughed sinfully and stood on the outside of the bar exit. "It's over, dude."

"Oh, yeah?" Zorro breathed, heaving gulps of air. Luke nodded his head, "Yeah!"

"Well, I hate to tell you this, dude, but I starred in Pirates of Penzance three times."

"Oh yeah? What of it?"

"Say hello to act two, scene one!" Zorro yelled, flipping the bar exit open, hitting Luke's jaw and pushing him backwards to hit the back wall and have a plastic pumpkin land on his head, knocking him out cold.

Drew and Annabeth ran downstairs and reached Zorro, shocked that the masked guy knocked out one of the football team's core players.

Zorro turned around, "You two alright?" The girls nodded.

"Thank you," Drew said, watching Zorro walk up to her and the blonde.

"My pleasure." Zorro said, taking Drew's hand and kissing the back of it. Said girl blushed; the feel of his lips on her hand sending volts of electricity through her. _Jason never made me feel this way before, even if it wasn't on my hand. . ._ the girl thought, hearing her heart beat a million miles a minute, frozen on the spot.

Zorro retracted his lips away from her hand and looked to Annabeth and smiled. Annabeth smiled, "Thank you for what you've done."

Zorro smiled back, taking her hand before it was taken away from him. He looked to Annabeth and saw her blushing. "I-I wish to give you m-more than a simple t-thanks Zorro. It's the least I c-could do." Said man raised his eyebrows.

Annabeth blushed even more at what she was about to ask him, the thought shocking her to the core, but she wanted to thank the man for taking the initiative and saving her and the ever-so-popular Drew. She stiffly started to walk to him and leaned to his ear, whispering incoherent words to him.

Zorro's eyes widened once the redhead finished what she said. He looked to her, blushing profoundly, and nodded his head feverishly. Annabeth smiled softly at the man and chuckled at his expression. The swordsman smiled embarrassingly at the beautiful lady in front of him and laughed along with her.

So not exactly like the movie… but oh well, deal with it! ;) have good food


	12. If I asked you to dance

"If I ask you to dance, does that count as a question?" Jason said, walking inside the glistening gazebo with the beauty by his side. The girl giggled and looked around the area, "There's no music."

"So?" he grinned, bending down in a princely manner and left out his hand, waiting for the girl to grab it. Piper smiled, dropping her hand in his calloused one. He grinned a boyish grin and pulled her in his chest, slinking his arm around her thin waist. The two started to sway slowly around the gazebo, gazing into each other's eyes.

The sound of an acoustic guitar, violin and a tambourine snapped them out of their loving gazes and they looked to the sound. Three workers from the hotel were setting up stands and sheets of music and smiled to the couple. Piper giggled when they started to play a familiar tune and the workers sang the song too. Looking back to the boy in front of her, she smiled and specks of blush dusted her cheeks. Grinning, Jason softly spun her around and gracefully dipped her down and pulled her back up again.

_The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful_

_Stop me and steal my breath._

Jason stopped dancing and leaned in, trying to grab the girl's mask to reveal his Princeton Girl and to try and kiss the beautiful brunette. Piper looked away, embarrassed.

Jason grinned, putting his hands behind his back in surrender. He once again bowed to her and left out his hand, to which she grabbed it and started their little swaying slow dance once more.

_And emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky _

_Never revealing their depth._

_Tell me that we belong together,_

_Dress it up with the trappings of love._

_I'll be captivated,_

_I'll hang from your lips, _

_Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above. _

Jason spun her around again, hearing her laugh that sounded like chimes. He grinned, smirking when she came up to his chest again blushing.

_I'll be your crying shoulder,_

_I'll be love's suicide_

_I'll be better when I'm older,_

_I'll be the greatest fan of your life._

"AII out of questions?" Piper said, smiling a bright smile at the boy. Jason looked up, thinking. He grinned and looked down to the girl, "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

Smiling a closed smile, Piper spoke, "I'll let you know."

"But, I've seen you before?"

"Yes."

He frowned, "Man. How could I have seen you before, and not know who you are now?"

"Maybe you were looking, but you weren't really seeing." she said, giving an understanding look to him, "Hey, you've got one more question left."

"Okay," he said, pulling away from the girl and turned around to grab a white rose from its vine. Piper giggled when he spun around dramatically and bounced the delicate flower in his hand. He smiled softly, "Do you, Princeton Girl, feel like you made the right choice meeting me here tonight?"

Piper smiled, "I do," Looking down at her feet for a moment, she glanced back up at him, "And do you, Jason Grace, ever wanna see me again after tonight?"

He breathed in deeply and exhaled, looking away from her, "I'd have to think about that."

The brunette's eyes widened, a teasing smile on her face. Jason grinned down at the girl, "Absolutely."

Both of them smiled softly to each other, love swarming in their eyes. Slowly, Jason started to lean down to the girl, Piper mimicking his movements. With half lidded eyes, their world was muted and what mattered to them were each other in this moment. Only 'mere centimeters away from each other's lips, Piper braced for the sudden mouth to mouth contact. She closed her eyes, feeling the breath of Jason's hit her blushing cheeks. _This is it . . ._

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BEEP BEEP BEEP! Went the shrill of Piper's cell phone. Piper's eyes shot open and she groaned, looking to her foot, "Not now."

"What?" Jason said, a small blush creeping up his neck, but the boy kept it down.

Looking up to Jason, Lucy frowned, "I gotta go."

"You have a curfew or something?"

Piper looked away, "Something like that." Grabbing the rose from the boy's hand, Piper gave him an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, but thank you. This has been the most amazing night." She picked up the end of her dress and stepped down the steps of the gazebo, leaving Jason in shock.

Getting out of his reverie, Jason shouted to the girl, "Where are you going?"

Piper turned around, "I'm late."

"For what?"

"Reality." she said, turning to the exit of the garden and running back inside. Jason leaned on the gazebo, looking at the spot where she left before bolting to go back inside the hotel, following Princeton Girl. He was not gonna let this chance slip from his fingers.

Inside, the majority of the seniors were dancing on the dance floor, moving their bodies to the point that there was no space for anyone to dance.

Until the moment was ruined when Miss Reyna had cut the music short.

Katie was out of her daze and blinked at the teacher, "I was right in the middle of a power jam. You totally harshed my mellow."

"You'll get over it and live," Reyna said to the girl. Turning back to the crowd, Miss Reyna continued, "Hello! It is almost midnight. And that means it's time to announce who we have selected . . ."

. : . : .

Leo was standing off of the side, watching the crowd mumble to themselves on what's going on. Noticing Jason approach him with a desperate expression, he spoke quickly, "What's up?"

"Have you seen the girl I was with?" he breathed, his chest heaving heavily.

Leo shook his head, "No, I haven't seen her, but you missed it. Luke was beaten by some kid. It was crazy."

. : . : .

"Now, the moment you've all been waiting for." Miss Reyna voiced echoed throughout the room.

Piper ran around half the dance floor, looking for her ride. She finally found him, but at the moment, he was kind of busy.

With widened orbs, Piper whispered to Zorro, "Percy!"

Percy, who of course was Zorro, was currently pinning Annabeth Chase to the wall while profoundly making out with her, tongue and all. It was like that kiss was like they were a couple whom were gonna die in that moment and wanted to put in so much emotion in that one mouth to mouth moment. And of course there were moans and groans emitting from both, embarrassing Piper to no end.

Red faced and wide eyes, Piper whispered to Percy once more, "Percy. Percy, come on!"

. : . : .

Miss Reyna spoke once again over the crowd, "Your new Ancients High homecoming prince and princess . . ."

. : . : .

"I'm gonna be late!" Piper said, looking back to a clock attached to the wall.

. : . : .

". . . are Prince Charming and Cinderella!" Miss Reyna smiled, looking at the crowd, waiting for the winning couple.

Leo's eyes widened, "It's you, bro. It's you!" He slapped Jason's back in encouragement and smiled, while the winner didn't look happy but more like he wanted to get out of there.

. : . : .

Pulling away from the blonde's face, Percy spoke huffing, "My dear, I must bid you adieu. I'm sorry."

Annabeth breathed, "A what?"

"I gotta go. I'm sorry." he said, feeling Piper's arm pull him away from Annabeth. He pulled towards the blonda once more and kissed her one last time before he pulled away and ran with the brunette, leaving Annabeth lonely and curious as to who was Zorro. "Hurry up!" Piper yelled, running towards the staircase that held the only exit to leave the dance.

. : . : .

"Bravo! There he is, bravo!" Miss Reyna said, smiling at Jason, who was trying to escape Leo's grasp. Reyna noticed that Cinderella was nowhere to be found, until she looked to the grand staircase.

"Looks like Cinderella is playing hard to get." she said, motioning the spotlight to land on the blonde, who was racing to leave and get back to the diner in time.

Piper and Percy turned around once Reyna had spoke and saw the entire dance floor staring at the two, including Annabeth and Jason, who were wide eyed for two different reasons. Jason; he found Princeton Girl and Annabeth; Zorro was leaving for real.

"Shit." Piper muttered, turning around once she saw Jason pushing his way out of the crowd to reach her. Unconsciously she had dropped her cell phone on the stairs while escaping her paradise.

Seeing that Princeton Girl had dropped something, Jason picked the object up and saw that it was her cell phone, which had a little lightning bolt chain on it as well. Dropping it in his pocket, Jason ran after the girl.

Running out of the building quickly with Percy, Piper exited the building, passing the garden that held the best moment of her life so far and running away from her one chance at love.

. : . : .

As Princeton Girl turned the corner, Jason almost caught up with her. But when he turned the corner, no one was there.

No Zorro or Princeton Girl.

He sighed, reaching into his pocket and grabbing the cell phone. Opening the phone, he was about to find out who was Princeton Girl's name, had there been no password on her phone. He frowned when a familiar ringtone had said in a monotone voice, "Please enter your password". Jason closed the phone and, feeling glum, walked back inside.

. : . : .

"I almost kissed Jason Grace!" Piper said, opening Mr. Jackson's Mercedes. "I totally, totally kissed Annabeth Chase!" Percy said, taking off his mask. Realizing what Piper said, he questioned her, "Wait, so, what-? What did he say when he found out that you were you?"

Piper sat in the car and slammed the car door, taking her mask off, "He didn't say, because he didn't find out."

Percyblinked, "You didn't tell him? Why not?"

Piper rubbed her face in exhaustion, "Percy, I live in an attic, okay? I drive a beat- up old car, and he's expecting Malibu Barbie. I'll be doing him a favor if I just disappear."

Percy gave her a sympathetic look, before he sat in the car and started the engine, sighing at Piper's logic.

STUPID PHONE! I WANT TO SMASH IT TO PIECES! Lol anyways I liked this chapter, ope you guys feel the same


	13. That was SUPER close

"Shotgun!" screamed Medea.

"Oh no, I'm shotgun!" yelled Khione, shoving her sister away from the passenger's seat.

Tired of her two daughters yelling, Christina rolled her eyes and screamed, "Get in already!"

"Stop pulling!" yelled Medea, shoving a paw in front of Khione's face. Christina rubbed her temples, trying to relieve the stress away.

It was the end of the dance, well at least for the McLean twins. At the moment, Medea and Khione were arguing and were gonna return to the diner immediately. Now remember, they got a costume that fit two people, much to Khione's displeasure, and they were currently trying to get into a small car. So you can imagine how frustrated all three of them were.

Once Medea closed the passenger's door, Christina noticed something. "Where are your crowns? Where are your prizes? Winners get prizes."

Khione sighed, "We didn't win, Mom. Some girl stole it from us."

Christina scrunched her face, "I am very, very, very, very upset about this."

"You don't look upset." Medea stated, looking at her mother, whose face contorted into a very stiff scowl. Christina narrowed her eyebrows, "It's the Botox. I can't show emotion for another hour and a half." Medea and Khione nodded in understanding._ She must've just recently gotten that plastic surgery . . ._ the blonde thought.

"I told you she wanted me bad." Percy smugly said, a winning grin etched on his face while he drove his father's Mercedes. Piper sighed, rubbing her forehead and leaned on the passenger's door, "Percy, just drive."

Percy shrugged his shoulders, a smug grin on his face as he drove to the exit of the hotel. What he didn't realize was another car exiting as well. Slamming on the brakes, both cars jolted forward.

As Medea and Khione were about to scream at the other driver, they saw a certain blonde in the passengers' seat. Both the girl's eyes widened, "Piper?!" Said girl's eyes widened and she ducked down, making her hidden to the driver that would've killed her in a heartbeat.

Immediately after the step-sisters noticed Piper, the two turned their heads to their mother, who was applying her makeup in the driver's mirror, "Mom! Mom! It's Piper! Over there! Over there!" They pointed to the other car, who surprisingly held only one person. Percy.

The raven-haired man scratched the back of his head and wore a sheepish smile, "Hi, Mrs. McLean."

"Mom, she was there. She's in the car!" Medea said, turning her head back and forth, from her mother to Percy. "We saw her, Mom." Khione said, backing up her sister.

Christina shook her head, adjusting her hot pink dress that slide down her body, showing off her cleavage to the world, "That's ridiculous. She's working tonight. She would never disobey me."

Percy took this opportunity to get out of their "cat-fight" -no pun intended- by driving out of the Hotel. He breathed easier once he left, _How can __Piper__ handle them?_ He took a side glance to the girl sitting next to him, still crouching in her seat, _God bless your soul Piper!_

"She was there. She was with him!" Khione exasperated, nodding her head. "In the car!" Medea said, Khione giving her a look.

Starting up the car and pretending to not hear her daughters, Christina started to drive out off to the diner. One more complaint and she'll burst into-

"I saw-"

"Shut your cat face!"

You can already guess who said that.

After a block or two away from the hotel, Piper popped her head out from her cramped position. Fixing her hair, she looked to Percy, who was keeping a close eye on his driving skills, "Did they see me?"

"No, I don't think so," Piper let out a breath of air she unconsciously held in, "but the wannabe Olsen twins might have."

Piper deflated after hearing his last statement. "Percy, I know you wanna take care of this car, but can you step on it?" the girl exasperated, looking at the multiple cars passing the Mercedes quickly. She whined when she counted the seventh car whizz by.

Percy shook his head, never faltering his eyes away from the road, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm already going 38 in a 35-mile zone, Piper, so can you just lay off, please?"

Piper pressed a hand to her forehead, leaning on the passenger's door. She closed her eyes and shook her head, exhausted at Percy and his antics.

Back with the Olsen twins and the walking mother disaster, Medea complained again. "Come on, catch up to them!"

"Will you speed up? We've got to beat Piper back to the diner!" whined Khione, looking at her mother with the evilest glare she could muster. Christina ignored her daughter, applying lip gloss to her pink lips while driving. Popping her lips and taking a look in the side mirror, Christina continued driving, "Shut up, girls. We'll be back at the diner soon enough."

Angered at her mother's stupidity, Khione looked at her mother incredulously, "Soon enough isn't soon enough!" Slamming her foot on top of her mother's, Khione applied much pressure on the gas pedal, speeding up the car to break necking speeds.

With widened eyes, Medea watched on the side lines as Christina and Khione yelled and screamed at each other with fearful eyes.

"What are you doing? Take your paw off the gas!"

"I can't. It's stuck!"

Struggling to get her foot off of Christina's, Khione pulled with all her might, but her troubles were only increasing as she struggled to retract her foot. The car increased in speed, passing by other cars in seconds and almost crashing into the majority. One other thing that didn't help them in their situation was that it just rained, making the pavement slick and slippery.

Running through multiple lights while screaming for their dear lives wasn't on these girl's bucket lists.

Piper's hopes were brightening once the traffic light turned to yellow. Bouncing in her seat, she tugged on Percy's cape, "Go, go!" Percy stopped the car and waited an extra five seconds before the light turned to crimson. Piper's mouth gaped open, "Percy, you could've totally made that light."

A little bit on the brink of agitated, Percy said, "FYI, Piper, yellow means slow down, okay? Not speed up."

Slouching in her seat, Piper massaged her temples while closing her eyes, tired of Percy's antics. "Percy, I need The Fast and the Furious, not Driving Miss Daisy."

The brunette opened her eyes once she heard shrills of screaming emitting from a car, spinning around fast in an intersection they weren't supposed to drive in. Simultaneously, Percy and Piper's heads turned to the noise, noticing a very familiar car. "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" screamed Khione.

Watching them spin and drive recklessly, the raven-haired man's eyes went wide, "Was that . . . ?"

Piper nodded her head, mouth dry and her brown orbs wide open, "Uh-huh."

"Mother, stop!" screamed Medea, grabbing hold of the steering wheel while trying to avoid a car crash in the making. "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" screamed Khione, now a puddle of screaming goop.

As they were spinning 'round and 'round, they miraculously drove into **CHRISTINA'S** parking lot, without a single scratch on their car. Of course, the people inside the car weren't in the best condition.

With an emotionless face, Medea spoke, "I think I need to use the litter box."

"Oh, my God. My face is back." Christina said, smiling and frowning every time, seeing that her face would show emotion again._ All that god damn surgery- for nothing!_

Rachel was biting her nails, leaning on the counter top Any second now, Christina would be here and Piper was nowhere to be found. This only made the artistic red head even more anxious. She jumped once the diner doors slammed open, revealing the devil herself; Christina and her apprentices. "I told you she wasn't here." Khione said, flicking a hair off of her forehead.

"No dope." replied Medea, scanning the diner.

"Where is Piper?" Christina said angrily, looking around the diner for her other daughter. Rachel stood up straight, a nervous tremor running through her, "What do you mean, where is Piper? Where do you think she is?"

Christina squinted her eyes at Rachel, "She better be here." Walking forward, she scanned her eyes across the diner once more. Rachel quickly walked in front of her, trying to slow her down, "Christina, I was gonna talk to you about something that I really- Christina wait!"

Said lady stopped, looking down to the manager. Rachel continued, seeing Christina's chest right up in her face, "I want my breasts done. Where did you get those?" Trying to sound interested, Rachel gave a shaky smile.

Christina scowled and shoved Rachel off to the side, "San Diego. Excuse me."

"D-Did you notice how shiny the floors are since we switched to Mr. Clean?" Hazel said nervously, standing up from the floors on her rollerblades.

Christina rolled her eyes, "What are you, a commercial? Click!" She shoved Hazel away and said girl mumbled "Oh, mommy, oh!" when she slipped onto the floor again for the fifth time that day. CHristina got behind the counters to take a look into the kitchen. but another obstacle was in her way.

"Christina, I'm so glad you're here, because-" Hedge said, holding a big salmon in his arms. Noticing the fish, he pushed it into her face, "The fish. Nemo is no more. Smell!"

Melli chimed in as a distraction as well, "There is a tear in one of the booths!"

"We were gonna tell you-"

"What am I supposed to do with a dead fish?"

Tired of all the ridiculous excuses, Christina slammed her purse onto the counter top silencing the diner, "Everyone, shut up!" Taking in a deep breath through her nostrils, she spoke through gritted teeth, "When I find her, I'm gonna wring her-"

"Order's up!" said a young lady's voice from inside the kitchen, ringing the diner bell with a metal ladle.

Everyone turned to the voice, surprised that it was-

"Piper? What are you doing back there?" muttered Christina, seeing her covered-with-flour face, an old t-shirt, and a baseball cap on her head. Said girl shrugged her shoulders, "Just working on my cooking skills."

Hedge nodded his head, "Yeah, I was teaching her to make pancakes with salmon."

Scooping up another thing of the pancake batter, Piper slowly dropped it over the sizzling oven top, "How was the dance, girls?"

Christina looked at her with an incredulous expression, then to her girls, who were also in shock as well. Turning back to her employees, she gave the dirtiest glare throughout the entire diner, "You know, something stinks around here. And it's not the fish."

Christina pulled at Rachel's arm and muttered darkly in her ear, "You're gonna get it." Oh, Christina wanted to rip the smug smirk on Rachel's face. She enjoyed her expression of pure terror just five minutes ago.

Standing straight, Christina turned to her girls, "Come on, girls."

Once Christina and her daughters exited the diner, Rachel looked at Piper with a surprised expression mixed with one that looked like happiness. Rachel smiled wide for Piper.

The brunette dropped the pancake battered ladle in a bowl, sighing and leaned on the kitchen counter top with one hand to her forehead and the other to ruffle her dress that she still wore. Thankfully, Christina didn't take one step into the kitchen, or else Piper would be punished beyond no belief.

Percy smiled and sighed, slamming his palms on the car hood, "We made it, and not a scratch." Grinning like a madman, Percy giddily climbed into his father's Mercedes and started the car.

"Come on, girls," reminded Christina. Her heels clicked and clacked on the pavement. "You bit me, you dumb face." mumbled Khione, trying to hit Medea.

Climbing into their car, Christina grumbled, "Car smells like bad cheese."

"Don't put your dirty paws all over me!" replied Medea, pushing away Khione's paw in the car. "Stop pushing me!"

As Mrs. McLean started to drive away, Percy seemed to feel a sense of déjà vu run through him. He noticed once again that it was Mrs. McLean that was trying to leave the diner parking lot at the same time he was exiting. Avoiding Christina, he was only a few inches short of hitting the large **CHRISTINA'S** sign that stood high above Long Island Valley.

Sat frozen in his seat, Percy didn't move for a full whole minute with his eyes wide and mouth open, afraid that if he did move, something bad would happen to his car. After a short while, Percy sprinted out of his car and checked if his front bumper was crushed.

"What is he doing here?" Khione said, watching from within the car.

Percy almost jumped for joy when nothing was damaged, not even the tacky chrome finish his father had done. "Tonight must be my lucky night. Okay." he mumbled, leaning on the metal post of the CHRISTINA'S sign.

But luck had ran out for Percy. He hadn't noticed that the CHRISTINA'S sign was starting to shake from where it stood, and before he knew it, the sign tipped and let out a loud CREEEEAAAK-ing noise. Percy looked up, his eyes widening at the disaster waiting to happen, _Oh, no!_

Jumping away just in time, Percy shielded himself from the electrical sparks that were flying everywhere. Christina, Khione and Medea started to scream once the sparks had jumped onto the hood of their car; their arms flapping wildly and their screams ear-bleeding.

Looking up, Percy started to feel faint from the sight; his father's car was now squashed under the diner's sign and the car itself was ruined. It was now reduced to a piece of moving metal that once was a beautiful looking car.

Percy started to hyperventilate, "Mrs. McLean . . . ," said woman looked up with stressed eyes, " . . . your sign hit my . . . ," Percy started to tilt backwards, " . . . car."

Ladies and gentlemen, our dear friend Percy Jackson has fainted.

Omg thanks for the comments! I love them! 3 have a good day!


	14. How can you not figure it out Jason!

The morning after the dance, everyone was back to normal, all dressed in nothing fancy, nor too sloppy. Everyone was talking big about the dance, especially about the homecoming king and queen.

On the campus, you could hear the announcements go off, with the usual random song playing in the background.

_I met a girl I'd like to know better, but I'm already with someone_

_I met a girl I'd like to know better, but I'm already with someone_

_Everyone stands on the corner promiscuously_

_Looking like something to fight and for something to beat_

"Gozaimasu, Fighting Ancients. Here's your daily drought reminder: Only flush for number two," Annabeth said freely on the PA, "Jason Grace was crowned prince of the homecoming dance. Big shocker there. Didn't see that one coming." She rolled her eyes, shaking her head at the cliché moment, "But the real mystery, though, is who was his princess?"

Listening in on the announcements, Piper and Percy walked into Ancient High. "How long are you grounded for?" Piper asked, fixing her backpack that was slung behind her back. Percy scoffed, running a hand through his raven locks, "Well, how long is forever? Anyways, you're not gonna tell Jason?"

Now it was the her to scoff, "Come on, Percy. It's not like he'll pine for me. Trust me, he's forgotten all about Cinderella by now."

As the two had walked into the High school's lobby, the color neon yellow had been the first thing that had caught both Piper and Percy's eyes.

Papers and papers were spread all over the walls and the lobby desk, all each neon yellow. On the papers, there was the silhouette of a girl's face with her hair pinned up in a curly bun and, instead of the usual eyes, nose and mouth, there was a giant black question mark, replacing her face. Under the girl's face, there was seven large words written in cursive; "HAVE YOU SEEN CINDERELLA? CONTACT JASON GRACE" with a repeated phone number at the end on several smaller slips of paper.

Percy leaned near Piper's ear, "Yeah, he's obviously forgotten all about you." Piper stiffly nodded her head and muttered, "Yeah."

"Dude, why are you going through all this trouble for one chick?" Travis said, holding a yellow paper in his hand while walking down the hallways of Fairy High. Jason rolled his eyes, ignoring Travis's comment, "Look, she's not just some chick, all right? She was real."

"Real? Like, she still had her old nose?" Leo asked, handing Jason another yellow paper to him. The blonde shook his head, stapling another yellow paper to a close bulletin board, "No, real," he turned to his friends, "A girl who has more on her mind than what she wears, or how much weight she wants to lose. She listens to me." He smiled at the last part.

Leo punched Jason's shoulder, "Listens to you? Hey, brother, I listen to you, okay? I feel your pai-", he stopped mid-way, noticing a short, cute red head with curly hair passing his way. He howled, "Hello, kitty."

Feeling his shoulder being pulled back, Leo met electric blue orbs. "Yeah, you're a great listener." Jason sarcastically said. "Look, man, you found her cell phone. You just gotta get some clue from that." Travis suggested, shifting his arms from holding the stack of yellow papers.

"The phone's locked. I keep getting messages like, 'I need you,' and, 'Come see me now.'" Jason said, grabbing another paper. Travis's eyes widened, "Oh, dude, that's so hot."

Jason walked down the hallway to the next bulletin board, stapling another paper, "See, that's what I thought," he paused from his work and leaned in, "Until I got one that said, 'Come fix fryer.'" He smirked at Leo and Travis's expressions.

Travis was the first to get out of his trance, forming his hand into a fist, "Oh, dude, that's hot and kinky, baby! You know what I'm saying? Can I get one? Let me get a pound, baby." He held his fist up, waiting for Jason to do a fist-pound with him. But the said man just gave him a weird look and muttered, "Weirdo."

Walking in an endless hallway, Percy nudged Piper's side once they passed the seventh dozen papers mounted on the bulletin board, "He's looking for you everywhere. Tell him it was you!"

The beauty shook her head, "Isn't it better to cling to what might've been, instead of ruining everything with reality?"

"You can't hide from him forever-"

"Not forever," Piper insisted, "Just until graduation, when I leave this place and never see him again." Percy sighed, giving a worried glance at Piper. She was a stubborn wench when she was determined on a set goal; it was just how Piper was.

"Speaking of avoiding certain people . . ." Piper muttered once Annabeth, the strict and ever-so-studious student council president, passed by the duo, focused on ending a fight that was being held at the end of the hall._ I still can't believe she turns her personality 180 degrees once she gets on the morning announcements. It's almost like she's bipolar or when someone hands her a book or talks about architecture. . ._ the brunette thought, looking at her raven-haired friend, noticing a dusting of crimson on his cheeks. The brunette smirked, "Okay, so, what about you, Zorro? When are you gonna tell Drew?"

Percy scoffed, puffing out his chest, "Well, I've been thinking about doing just that, as a matter of fact."

"Right. Okay, so the day you tell Drew it was you that saved her from attempted rape, I'll tell Jason it was me." Piper proposed, handing out her right hand for Percy to shake. The male smirked, "Deal."

Piper smiled, "Deal."

"Look in the yearbook again." Leo whined, groaning when Jason would staple the papers way too slow for his liking. "Maybe she's foreign exchange. That's hot!"

Travis nodded his head in agreement, "Totally. That's, like- That's, like, really hot!"

Jason rolled his eyes once more, pondering on how in the world was he friends with these two. Glancing behind him, he focused on the two weirdoes that were wondering if Princetongirl818 was foreign and hot, "Look, there's no way I missed her. I mean, we had a connection."

He turned around, passing by other students. He caught the eyes of a kaleidoscope, brunette girl from across the hallway, staring at him the same way that he was looking at her. _Wasn't she Piper "Diner Girl" McLean from CHRISTINAS?_

For a moment, he felt a sense of nostalgia hit him, wondering as to where he's seen those beautiful, alluring eyes before. Shaking his head and staring at the floor, Jason cleared his recent thoughts of Princetongirl818 and the girl from across the hall being the same person.

There was no way that they would be the same person; it was a one-in-a-million chance. He was better off posting up another thousand papers all over the school campus for another two hours. It was worth it in the long-run.

After Jason glanced at the floor and walked away from her, Piper hadn't realized that she would be walking into-

**BANG!**

. . . An opened locker without even looking. As it slammed closed, the owner of that particular locker smiled and walked away, carrying a handful of books and binders, "Thanks!"

"Jeez, are you okay?!" Percy said, seeing that Piper was clutching at her head for a brief thirty seconds, before letting her hands slip from her head. "Ow." she muttered, cursing at her own stupidity.

Really, can't karma let her off the hook for once?

I thank all of you whom have reviewed! You guys are the best


	15. Poor Poor Percy

"Keep your legs straight. Straighter, straighter!" Khione yelled in the pool, holding her sister's legs up while said girl was trying to do a handstand. "What are you doing? Medea!"

While Khione had complained, Medea was trying to do their signature "mermaid plunge" move, which required shaking of the legs while doing a handstand and blowing bubbles in the water. Of course, this was the wrong move to do since Khione was getting angry at her sister's stupidity.

Oh, but we cannot forget their little bickering fest.

"After the flip, it's the butterfly rollover!" Khione yelled, flipping her sister up so that she was face-to-face with the girl.

"No, it's not. It's mermaid plunge!"

Khione's face contorted into a menacing scowl, her face the shade of crimson, "Oh, my God. I cannot wait for my solo career!" The girl shoved her sister, watching as Medea's colorful swim cap had flung off of her head.

Medea had a confused expression adorned on her pale complexion, "Wait, since when are we going solo?"

Khione screamed, splashing the water all around her and hitting several passer-bys, which included Drew and her band of apprentices, who were all walking around the side of the pool in their bikinis.

"He was so mysterious, but really obvious at the same time," Drew said, gushing over Zorro, whom saved her heroically. Silena fixed her hair while walking and reading her magazine, not caring for Drew's story and Lacy rolled her eyes for the thousandth time, tired of Drew's shenanigans.

She slapped her sweaty forehead once more when Drew wouldn't stop gushing over her mysterious hero, "I mean, kind of dangerous, but very safe. And wild, but tame."

Over near the entrance of the outside pool, Piper and Percy walked slowly, pausing when they saw their object of Percy's thoughts. Piper leaned on the metal fencing, staring at the walking figure of Drew, "I cannot believe you're gonna tell Drew it was you."

Percy smirked, "Piper, once she realizes that she's found her Zorro, okay, she'll be thrilled." The raven-haired man shoved his backpack and jacket to Piper, who took his things and gave him a weary look. "Now, watch and learn."

As Percy had walked to Drew with a swagger in his steps, Piper covered her eyes from the blinding sun, and yelled, "Good luck!"

"And, oh, my God, when he kissed my cheek, I-"

"Enough already!" yelled Lacy, eyes wild and dilated. She gave Drew a look, saying for her to shut her trap before she loses her sanity over her friend's love-sickness. Drew smirked, cocking her hip to the side and crossing her arms, "Lacy, I think somebody's got a green monster on their back called Mr. Jealousy."

Lacy rolled her eyes, cursing at Zorro for brainwashing Drew.

"Drew, baby, what's up?" a familiar voice called out to her. A little pang of hope had hit Drew's heart once she heard that voice, but once she turned around to see her caller, her face fell. "And you are?" she spoke in a monotonous voice, giving an expression of disregard.

Percy smirked cockily, "Yeah. Allow me to refresh your memory," He grabbed her hand, bowed down to her and kissed the backside of her pale hand. Drew blushed a little; the pang of her heart hitting her with a thousand jolts of electricity, just like the night when she met Zorro.

Drew snapped out of her thoughts when Percy ripped his lips away from her hand slowly, leaving a small amount of spittle; not too much, but not too disgusting. Percy smiled softly, "Zorro."

Drew widened her eyes, clutching her hand to her chest, "You mean zero!" Taking a glance at her friends, she spoke in a whispered voice, "Who is he?"

Silena responded, "That's Percy Jackson."

Lacy cut in, "He's the guy you cheat off of in Algebra II."

Drew paled, "The freak who hums show tunes?!"

Percy paled and his heart dropped a little.

Khione, fed up with her sister's idiocy, jumped out of the pool and sped her way to the school's diving board. She climbed and climbed the railing until she heard the pitter-patter of some else climbing up the ladder as well. Looking down, Khione saw Medea climbing up.

Reaching to the top, Khione waited 'til she saw Medea's hands at the edge of the diving board. "I'm in front!" Medea shouted, reaching for Khione's feet. Khione yelped a bit, then scowled, "Quit it!"

Medea gritted her teeth, "Sorry. But still, let me in the front!"

Drew pulled Percy off to the side, grabbing his arm and looking back at her friends that were giving her a questioning look. Once they were far enough, Drew started to wring her fingers and think of the best lie off of the top of her head. "Listen, last night I had a very bad cold, and I drank a whole bottle of Nyquil. I just wasn't myself."

Percy, being the smart guy he was, knew that the girl in front of him was lying. He just didn't want to hear that little fact for himself, because as the naive guy he was, he couldn't accept that. Like every male in a cliché school-themed movie, the losers, geeks and outcasts all wanted the most hottest, popular girl. But they all knew that it would never happen; their lives were two of a different species.

Percy knew this very well, but the raven-haired man was just about to ask the most stupidest answer that was obvious to the whole world.

"But I thought we had, like, a connection."

Drew rolled her eyes, "Okay. We don't have anything. We are from completely different classes of human. Let's go back to our usual lives, where we only mingle when I copy you in Algebra II, okay?" She gave him a hopeful smile and jogged her way back to her friends who were waiting for her.

Percy stood there, frozen on the spot. He knew this would happen. But his stupid stubbornness wouldn't let him believe it. "'Kay?" he mimicked in Drew's high, girly voice.

"We didn't rehearse it!" Medea yelled, pushing her sister closer to the diving board. Said girl was pushing Medea away from her, "We're trying it now!"

As Khione walked to the edge of the diving board, Medea shoved Khione's aqua-drenched body off of the diving board, sending her flying down to the blue abyss under her. But as Khione started to fall and scream at the top of her lungs, Medea hadn't noticed that Medea's hand had grabbed her ankle, pulling Medea down with her. Now, both twins were falling and screaming down to the end of the school pool.

When the twins had reached the water, they had created the ultimate cannon ball, creating giant ripples of water that had hit students off on the sidelines. Percy was one of those students.

After being sprayed by an unsuspecting wave of aqua, Percy stood frozen, soaked in pool water and feeling emotionally drained and dejected. Wiping away the water off of his face, Percy walked to Piper, who stood shocked at Percy's state.

"Y-You all right?" Piper stuttered, watching as Percy's sneakers squeaked when he took a step towards her. Wringing his clothes, Percy had scowled and started to walk away from the pool, "If she thinks she's still cheating off me, she's crazy."

Poor Percy is having such a crappy time. But just think… him hitting on Drew…. EW! But sorry it had to be done :P though it's pretty gross and weird.


	16. Omg, really guys

After a full two hour's worth of work, Jason and his gang were currently pulling the blonde off to another random place. They've been doing that as of late and Jason was getting annoyed at the pyro and trouble-maker he called his friends. What even made Jason get angrier was when his friends wouldn't tell him what schemes they were planning.

"Guys, I don't know about this . . ." Jason wearily said, hearing in the distance screams of girls chanting his name or squealing very loud. Travis smirked, "Come on."

"Just trust us," Leo chimed in. Travis grinned, "We asked every girl if they were with you at the dance. These said yes." The duo pulled Jason closer to the sound of girls yelling, a glint of sin rushing through their eyes for a brief moment. Jason gave them a look of confusion before turning his head and realizing his whole year of classmen girls were standing in line for Jason. Once the ladies had seen the boy in the flesh, squeals that were incomprehensible to the human ear were heard. Faces flushed with red and eyes twinkling in delight, a massive wave of fan girls for Jason had appeared in said boy's vision.

Jason's blue orbs widened, "Oh, no. No, no, no!" He started to take a sprint, passing Travis and Leo for a moment, before they had caught the back of his shirt and dragged him to the wolves that were deemed "females".

"Guys, come on!" the blonde moaned, not liking the feeling of being forcefully dragged by his friends. Travis grinned, pointing him to sit on a near-by bench that was close to the rabid fan girls, "Sit down here."

Jason was about to protest, but sighed._ Protesting I guess would be futile anyway_, he thought.

Leo, who was off on the sidelines, smirked and walked to the side of the bench. Bending over, he grabbed a microphone and a mini speaker that were wrapped in plastic and turned on the speaker. He plugged in the microphone and tapped it, hearing the echo of the tapping sound come out of the speaker. Satisfied, Leo looked to Travis, who tossed him a set of index cards.

Grinning like a madman, Leo looked at the top of the cards, and spoke in a game-show host's voice. Jason slapped his forehead and muttered, "Stupid pyro."

"Okay! Jason Grace! Let's bring out bachelorette number one!" Leo said, pointing to the first girl that was in the line. The girl blinked, staring at Jason with a stoic face. "She's a transfer from San Diego, enjoys collecting puka shells, long walks on the beach and getting tubed. Pleased to meet you, Reyna!"

Rayna greeted the blonde, "What's up, Jason?" Waving back with a weary look and a tight smile, Jason spoke, "Thanks for coming, Reyna."

Reyna shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes, fixing her shoulder bag, "See you."

The blonde-haired male watched her figure walk away from him. _I didn't know she had a thing for me_, he thought. Cracking his neck, Jason turned to Travis, who was sitting next to him, grinning. "You're dead." Jason said. Travis grinned even more.

"Okay, okay, let's bring out bachelorette number two!" Leo said, ushering for the next girl to come forward. Jason grimaced when the girl was grinning wide and walked with a determined aura, _Why me?_

Leo grinned, liking the fact that Jason was having a crappy time. Looking back to the index cards, Leo continued, "This little filly's into barbells, World War II and protein shakes. Here's Riley Law!"

"Hey Jason!" Riley said, puffing out her chest and curtsied a little. Jason, like before, looked jaded and smiled, "Thank you."

All the fan girls squealed in the background just for seeing "The Great Jason smile his glorious grin." Jason rolled his eyes while Travis and Leo laughed whole-heartedly, not giving a care in the world. Noticing that Leo was currently dying of laughter, Jason grabbed Leo's head and wrapped his left arm around his neck, placing him into a headlock. "You are so dead!" Jason laughed with his veins popping out of his skin.

Wiping the rest of his tears away, and getting away from Jason, Leo smirked as he continued his torture for Jason, "Okay, okay, next up is-"

"Enough, enough. Guys, come on." Jason yelled, standing up and pulling the microphone away from Leo. Turning it off, Jason let his red face cool down before looking up to the next girl in line, which was Calypso.

"Look, you're pretty, okay? But I'm not your prince. You'll meet him someday, but it's not me." Jason said, giving the girl a small smile. Calypso looked heartbroken for a second before settling with a returning smile, "Thanks, Jason."

Travis sighed, scratching his scalp, ignoring the calming and almost romantic atmosphere. Lazily looking around the area, Travis blinked multiple times before he saw Katie Gardner. Ever since he saw her at the homecoming he's been thinking about her. Then, she looked right at him, making eye contact for a few seconds. She walked over to where the group was.

"Late entry." muttered Travis, whistling to Leo and Jason to catch their undivided attention. "Travis, you stop it right now. You're a bad boy, and that is a terrible shirt." Katie said, scolding Travis, who blinked and gave Katie a wink, "You know you like them bad boys."

Katie gave one last glare to Travis, and then looked behind him where all the fan girls were, "Everybody, back to your class!" Katie said in a demanding voice. Katie turned her attention back to Travis. "What made you think this was ok to do, you should feel ashamed. At first Travis was hurt, then he noticed something. "You must really like me, 'cause you're only yelling at me and you can't keep your eyes off of me."

Katie slightly blushed at Travis and muttered, "Stupid boy." before leaving and ushering the fan girls out of the school's courtyard. Travis had a small smile on his face. When he looked back at the boys, they gave him a confused look. Travis chuckled and said, "Let's go."

Sorry for you peeps who don't believe in Traite… cause guess what… I DO! **PLEASE KNOW THAT I KNOW SOME OF YOU ARE DISAPOINTED THAT THIS IS JUST LIKE THE MOVIE… BUT THAT IS WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO AT FIRST, MAYBE I'LL REMAKE THIS AND CHANGE IT UP A BIT**


	17. So close, wait she's WHO!

"Don't want that," Christina said, dropping a letter from the mail, "don't want that, don't want that," The woman flipped through the mail, chomping on her bubble gum and checking her hot pink nails, not giving a care about her surroundings.

Christina was at home while the twins and Piper were at school, relaxing after doing so much work at home (which consisted of eating and tanning her "miraculous" body). After done tanning and eating more of her die-hard salmon diet, Christina decided to look through the mail.

"Don't want that, don't want that," she said, ignoring the raging bills that were sent to her house. Christina flipped through the mail with quick fingers, almost missing a certain letter addressed to Piper. "Don't want . . . that . . ,"

Christina looked behind her, making sure Piper wasn't around. Happy, she took her finger and pushed it under the letter fold, ripping the seam. Pulling out the letter inside the envelope, Christina opened it with careful fingers, reading the first line:

_**Dear Parent/Guardian,**_

_**Congratulations! Your child, Piper McLean, has been accepted to Princeton University- **_

"Accepted?" Christina whispered, shocked that her dolt of a step-daughter would be chosen for a high, esteemed college. Shaking her head slowly and with wide eyes, Christina gritted her teeth, "Oh, this won't do."

_CLICK, CLICK_

She froze, hearing the front door get unlocked. _Who's here this early?_ Christina thought. Remembering that she had the acceptance letter in her hands, Christina quickly stuffed the letter between the couch cushions and sat on top of it, hoping that her butt covered it.

"Hey. Anything in the mail for me?" Piper said, holding her bag over her shoulder while grabbing her keys out of the front door's lock. Christina nervously looked at the letters that were spread across her coffee table in a mix-max pattern. Grabbing a random letter, and not even taking a glance at the letter itself, Christina fumbled with what to say. "Oh, actually there's a personalized letter here from Toma E. Fiore saying you just won a million dollars."

Piper stared at Christina for a full minute, before scowling at her and walking up to her room, where Nomad would be waiting. Watching Piper go upstairs, Chistina shouted up to her, "Don't spend it all in one place."

Christina heard Piper scoff and slam her door closed. The woman flinched and slowly, but cautiously, grabbed the acceptance letter and read it over fully, biting her nails every few sentences that ended on a positive note.

**I need to know who you are. I can't take my mind off of you.**

**Please tell me who you are.**

Nomad sent to her this message.

Piper stared at her computer, pulling at her long sleeves in nervousness. Biting her lip, the teen contemplated on the options; if she tells Nomad who she really is, would he accept her as her? Would he reject her, forget her existence once she responded with her name? Piper shivered and blinked back tears that would burn her eyesight. But if she didn't respond her name, he'll never know her name and herself. He'll continuously ask her relentlessly, from what she already knew about him. He was just the type that went after the things he liked.

And that "thing" was Piper.

Closing her eyes, Piper thought about her choices. If she said yes, what would change between them? Would he go up to her in school and actually talk to the outcast she dubbed as herself? Or would avoid her at all costs? But what would happen if she doesn't respond back to him with a name? Or someone else's name? What would happen then?

Piper opened her eyes once more, a spur of determination striking through her veins. Typing back her response, Piper replied.

_Okay._

Stopping, Piper typed back with shaky fingers and a nervous sweat breaking out on her fingers.

_My name is-_

"Piper!" yelled Medea, bursting through Piper's room. The girl sitting at the computer desk stopped her movements, before speaking to her step-sister in a slightly snippy tone, not even looking away from the computer screen, "You missed the ''Do Not Disturb'' sign."

"No, I saw it." Medea said, leaning in the doorway, checking out her nails with a bored aura, "So you almost done with my report? It's due Friday."

Quickly saving the draft reply, Piper changed the screen to her step-sister's essay, half done and with no spelling errors. "I'm working on it." Piper said, typing up more information on the essay. Medea rolled her eyes, "Well, hurry up. It makes me nervous to have to wait for it."

"Imagine how nervous you'd be if you actually had to write it." Piper said, tapping the keyboard keys harder than before. Medea blinked and took a deep breath, "My God, you're right. So this time, could you try to make it sound more like me? I'm so sick of having to explain why I sound so smart on paper and . . . so not smart, not on paper."

"Piper? Can you come downstairs?" Christina said through the baby speaker on Piper's desk. Pressing the respond button, Piper replied tiredly, "I'll be right there."

"Now!" Christina shouted, anger vibrating through the speaker.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Piper rubbed her colorful orbs and stood up, walking away from her computer, "I'll be right back."

Medea nodded to Lucy, who passed her, "Hurry up."

As Piper descended the stairs at the end of the hallway, Medea stared at where Piper was, then sat on Piper's bed, picking at the chipped nail polish on her slender fingers. The green haired girl puffed out her cheeks in boredom and glanced at Piper's computer screen.

Mildly interested in Piper's life, Medea slyly stepped towards Piper's crappy and out-of-date computer, sitting in her desk chair. Looking through the pages and tabs she had left on hold, Medea was slowly falling in the depths of monotony when a particular chat was opened at the very back of Piper's on-hold tabs.

Noticing the name "Nomad" pop up multiple times on her chat history, Medea mumbled to herself, "Who the heck is Nomad?"

Unbeknownst to Medea, Khione was walking towards Piper's room when she heard the mumbles of her sister. Leaning on the wall outside of Piper's bedroom, Khione kept silent and continued to listen in on what Medea had to say.

Clicking on a recent conversation, Medea started to read from the beginning of the conversation with her interest in total control of the situation. ''Cinderella, are you not talking to me because you freaked when you found out I'm . . ." Medea swallowed a lump that was stuck in her throat, breathing heavily and blushing hard when she read the last part of the sentence in her mind. With a whispered and shaky voice, Medea spoke the last words, ". . . . Jason Grace?''

In the hallway, Khione's eyes widened ten-fold and she quietly slid down the wall, shock filling her entire form. "Piper is Cinderella?" she mumbled, fitting the puzzle pieces together.

The girl who walked, talked and danced with Jason at prom,

The girl in Percy's weird car when Medea, her mother and herself were exiting the hotel,

The same girl who worked at her mother's diner since she could get working papers at the young age of 14.

The girl who was dubbed "Diner Girl",

The outcast at school,

The disgrace of her mother since her wretched father had kicked the bucket for good,

The girl who is Cinderella to Jason.

Khione gritted her teeth, hating the taste in her mouth when she thought of Piper as Jason's Cinderella. She shook her head, scowling at the floor. _There has to be a loophole here_, Khione thought, grabbing a lock of her hair and intertwining it with her pale fingers. She closed her eyes, thinking hard and furrowing her eyebrows together, _Just what is it?_

Like a flash of lightning had struck the spark of the electric wheels in her clever brain, Khione opened her eyes, processing a thought that not even her sister would think of. _Perfect, just perfect! _Khione smirked.

I wonder what gonna happen! Hehe love you guys! Have a nice day/night.


	18. Not my problem

Jason sat at his work desk, staring at his acceptance letter with mild interest.

_**Dear Parent/Guardian,**_

_**Congratulations! Your child, Jason Grace, has been accepted to Princeton University-**_

"I got in." he muttered, a small smile formed slowly on his face. Hearing footsteps coming closer to his door, Jason dropped his acceptance letter on the top of his desk and acted like he was working.

"Jason!" Zeus yelled, slamming open the employee door. Wincing at his father's voice, Jason rolled his eyes, "What?"

Zeus blinked, looking at Jason's back, "What's going on?"

Jason turned around in his swivel chair, "Nothing."

Zeus leaned on the inside of the doorway, crossing his arms, "Let me guess. You're thinking, 'Is football really the right choice for me?'"

Jason nodded, "Well, yeah. I've been thinking a lot about this and-!"

Cutting off his son, Zeus smiled softly, a pang of nostalgia hitting him as he saw himself in Jason when he was also his age. "Don't worry about it. You're making the right choice, all right?"

Jason was about to retort but the look on Zues's face changed everything. Knowing that Jason's answer would only hurt his old man, the blonde sighed and muttered to himself. "Okay."

Khione sat in her red beetle, sitting in Jason's dad's car wash. She left her left hand linger on her steering wheel, smirking at her formalized plan that she had thought of. Rehearsing her lines, Khione spoke to herself, "It's me, Jason. It's Cinderella, from the dance. Oh, you found me~!" She had giggled to herself, finding the Jason in her head a very charming man.

Trying to remember the next set of lines, Khione looked to the empty passenger's seat and grabbed her pre-written script, flipping through pages and pages. "'You see, Jason, I live in this world full of people pretending to be something they're not. I miss you. I don't want-!"

While Khione was dramatizing over the Jason in her mind, Medea had parked in the opposite car lane. Seeing that Jason was walking over to her car, he muttered an "I got it." to his co-workers before seeing to Medea's car.

Smiling a plastic smile, Jason looked at the girl in front of him, twiddling with his fingers a notepad, "How are you doing?"

Medea smiled, "Good."

Jason looked at Medea's car, taking a note that it needed a cleaning, "Regular wash?"

Medea shook her head, "No, more like the royal treatment. I mean, that's what Cinderella would want."

Jason looked up to Medea, his face in a mixture of weariness and confusion, "What did you just say?"

Medea smirked at his reaction, "I'm her, Jason. I'm Cinderella, your dream girl," she purred out the last two words, while Jason shivered in disgust, "You see, I live in a world full of-"

"You!"

Upon hearing that shout, Jason and Medea looked up to see Khione approach them, face full of irritation. Medea's face fell and Jason noticed that the girl had gone paler than before.

Through gritted teeth and a hard lock-on stare towards Medea, Khione uttered every word that she spoke and laced it with malice, "What are you doing here?"

Medea started to sweat a little and tried to sound like she wasn't expecting her twin sister, "I-I'm Cinderella, coming to meet my prince."

Khione scoffed, "That's a little hard, considering I'm Cinderella. I mean, I'm the most 'Cinderelly' Cinderella there ever was."

Feeling the tension between the girls, Jason held out his arms and nudged the girls away from each other, "Ladies, ladies, ladies. Look, I can settle this, all right? The girl that I met at the dance, she dropped something on her way out. What was it?"

Khione blinked and smiled at Jason, "Oh, that's easy. A key."

Jason smirked and leaned forward on his heels, arms crossed, "No."

Medea snickered while Khione had looked stunned. "I-I meant a key p-purse."

"No."

"Oh! A fish!" Medea gleefully said. Jason and Khione looked at her with the most peculiar expressions. Khione's face looked like it was ready to slap the palm of her hand with her forehead and Jason's was in complete "what-the-fuck" mode.

"A . . . . fish?" Khione uttered, with her eyebrow twitching in annoyance. Medea looked at Khione, scowling, "It was the first thing that popped into my head. You said, 'key-purse.' What's that?"

Jason decided during this time to leave the brewing catfight. Shaking his head, Jason walked away from the twins, towards the entrance of the building.

Khione watched her blonde haired prince walk away from her, " Jason?!" Glancing back at Medea, Khione yelled at her twin sister, "Look what you did. See? You always ruin everything. I was supposed to be Cinderella. I'm the oldest!"

"By a minute and seven seconds. And you never let me forget it!" Medea yelled back, shoving her sister backwards. Realizing what she had just did, Medea widened her eyes and walked a couple steps backwards. Khione, irked by her sister, gave a malicious smile to her twin and walked over to the side, grabbing a broom and shoving the end of the broom to Medea. "Well, maybe this will help you remember."

Medea breathed, "No." Jumping at the chance of running away with her tail in between her legs, the terrified girl ran while screaming for her life. Khione was quick on her feet as she carried the broom, "Come here!"

Medea ran inside the car wash, pushing buckets of dirty water and bottles of soap behind her, hoping that the objects would slow Khione down. To her dismay, they hadn't but helped her.

"You're dead! I'm gonna kill you!" Khione yelled, dropping the broom and made a full-on sprint towards her sister. Medea ran past cleaned cars and pushed back her soaked and soapy hair that clung to her face. Hearing the close pitter-patter of her sister's shoes hitting the pavement, Medea hid behind the moving, cleaning, hanging pieces of whatever the hell that cleaned the cars, hoping to give a surprise attack to Khione.

"Medea?" Khione screamed, looking for her sister through the masses of fluffy soap and metallic cars._ Perfect_, Medea thought as she jumped out of her spot and slammed her foot in her sister's cheek. Khione's body had flung into the nearest car, which was a Honda Civic.

Medea took this opportunity and grabbed Khione's locks and rubbed her face against the hood of the car. "Oh, I'm gonna kill you! Get off!" Khione yelled, taking a hold onto Karen's wrist and pulling her on the hood, slamming her face on the car.

"That's what you get for stealing my idea!" Khione smirked as she threw a large wad of soapy bubbles in Medea's face, slapping her hand across Medea's cheek.

Bianca Di Angelo was not a very happy camper when she was waiting for something. And when she was waiting for her father's car for the minimum of 10 minutes, Bianca wasn't the type of kid that would try to_ not_ find anything to do.

Staring at the ceiling, counting how many "swirlies" were indented in her finger and looking around the waiting room a couple minutes later, Bianca was bored of seeing what she's already seen for the past 7 minutes.

Deciding that watching her dad's car getting washed may attract her short attention span, Bianca turned to the window, searching her eyes for their car. It didn't take so much as a minute.

"Hey, Dad, isn't that our car?" Bianca piped, pointing a finger at their car. Hades turned to his daughter and looked at what she was pointing at. His eyes widened and he dropped his cup of coffee once he saw two teenage girls fighting on his car's hood.

"I hate you!" said the twins simultaneously. But as they both screamed that, a yellow and blue light flashed before them, signalling what both of them feared.

Khione's eyes widened, "Oh, no!" Medea paled to a paste-white, "Not the . . ."

"HOT WAX!" both girls screamed, holding onto each other for support.

Meanwhile, Jason was flipping through a car magazine in peace when he heard the shrill of two girls screaming. Looking towards one of his co-workers, Jason shook his head, scoffing and smiling,_ Not my problem._

Once the car that the twins were laying on was finished, both Khione and Medea slowly sat up, their hair and clothes waxed and flattened, not to mention the look on their faces was basically pure exhaustion and anger. Hair sticking up and looked like a disheveled mess and their attire stuck to their waxed bodies, Medea and Khione glanced at each other.

Medea flipped the middle finger at her sister, smirking.

And Khione? Well, let's just say a good scratch to her sister's cheek and Medea was quiet for the rest of the day.

Well, that's the end… for now. Gosh I'm home sick I got food poisoning :P but I guess I can work on this now. Well I hope everybody is having a good day! BYE!


	19. The almost-confession

"Thank you. Have a good night." Piper muttered, smiling small when her customer left the diner. The brunette sighed, wiping down the counter top with a wet dish towel, drowning deep in her own sea of questionable thoughts.

"Hedge, can I get two BLT's?" Rachel said tiredly, grabbing her hidden stash of paint that was kept under the counter top. She dipped her fingers in some paint and started to paint a design on her pants. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw something, "It's coming."

Rachel rolled her eyes, darting her eyes from his form to the diner. There was Dionysus, the regular that came for breakfast and dinner, the red head knew that Melli was on her break, chatting with Hazel somewhere and Piper was at the counter top, looking like she was trying to keep herself busy and taking small glances at a spiky, blonde-haired boy-

Rachel almost choked on air and coughed, hacking and breathing irregular breaths. Hedge jumped and was ready to help Rachel, but said girl held up her hand once she saw many concerned eyes look in her direction. Once she regained her normal breathing, Rachel muttered, "I'm alright."

A few eyes glanced away from the artist's form, but some had stayed just for precaution. Rachel waved a hand, dismissing the remainder of the stragglers. Once the last of the eyes were glued to something far more interesting than herself, Rachel glanced at Piper, who was avoiding the blonde haired customer.

Rachel smiled when Piper looked at her from across the room. Rachel watched as Piper mouthed out "That's him." to her. Rachel smirked, watching as the girl's cheeks flushed a pink hue.

Rachel mouthed back, nudging her head in the blonde's direction, "That's good. Go over."

Piper frowned, wiping a glass and whispered, "No."

Rachel raised a thin eyebrow at her, nudging and jerking her thumb to Jason. Piper sighed, knowing that sooner or later, Rachel would force her to agree to her terms.

Dragging her feet, Piper picked up a notepad and pen and walked over to the blonde that leaned on the counter top generously.

"H-Hey." Piper said, tapping her notepad with the pen and gave a smile to Jason. "Can I get you something?"

"Do you know what bugs me?" Jason said, lifting his head up straight away, startling Piper. The brunette blinked, sweat-dropping at his question, "People taking your order?"

He rubbed his hands, passing his tongue to swipe across his chapped lips and answered, "No. Taking people's orders."

"Why would you do that?" Piper questioned, slightly overjoyed that Jason was talking to her, but also confused at his question. Jason scoffed, "You don't know my dad." Grabbing the menu that Piper handed to him, Jason glanced at the food choices, raising an eyebrow at some of the foods.

"Sushi and doughnuts? Who does that?" he muttered unconsciously. He peeked from above the menu and saw Piper giggle and give an uneasy smile. Grinning in return, Jason decided for the regular, "I'll take a coffee. Thank you."

Piper smiled and took the menu from Jason's hand. Turning around to face the coffee machine, Piper grabbed a coffee mug and poured the steamy, black liquid in the mug. A hot, calming steam had risen out of the mug and a delicious smell had wafted through the air. Jason breathed in the black liquid goodness, smiling when Piper handed him his coffee and pushed over the sugar container, along with a bottle of creamer, towards him. Piper smiled in response, turning around to help another customer when Jason's voice had stopped her.

"Excuse me, miss?" Jason said, crossing his arms and leaning on counter top. Piper turned to him, nodding her head for him to continue.

He licked his lips while looking away from her alluring eyes, a pensive expression on his face. "Do you ever feel like if you show someone who you really are . . . . they won't accept you?"

Piper nodded slowly, "Yeah. I do. Like being yourself isn't good enough."

Jason nodded, "Right."

"Like you're wearing a mask." Piper muttered, staring at the glass cup in her hand. Jason looked up at her with wide eyes and sat straight, "That's exactly how I feel."

Piper looked up at him, blushing a little when he stared at her with a intense look. The brunette continued her little spiel, "Y-You just wanna be honest with this person and tell them, 'It's me. I'm the one that you've been looking for.'"

"Yeah." Jason smiled and took a sip of his hot drink.

Piper bit her lip, and curled her fingers around the glass cup she had in her hands. The nape of her neck was in a cold sweat and a nervous tremor ran down her back. _Now's the perfect time to tell him_, she thought as she watched Jason swallow gulps of his hot coffee. _Now!_

"Jason. . ." Said boy looked up from drinking his coffee.

.

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"I'm-!"

"Piper!" Christina shouted when she opened the diner door. Piper winced at the sound and looked to Christina's general direction. Once she saw the devil wearing prada, Piper paled and sighed in exhaustion, "One second."

"No, now." Christina frowned and flicked a finger at Piper.

Jason finished his coffee and gulped the last drop of the drink. He gave a smile and shook his head at Piper, "No, it's cool, I gotta bounce." Standing up from his seat, Jason paid the wagered amount and turned towards the exit, walking away from Piper.

Piper hesitated, lifting her arm to grab Jason's arm, but let it drop to her side._ There's always a next time_, she thought. True, Piper had always a next time, but she decided to tell him in that moment because he was there, she was willing to tell him (although the thought of rejection had slipped through her mind), and _the moment was perfect_.

"Oh, and Piper?" The blonde looked up, jumping at the close proximity between her and Jason. _Has he ever heard of personal space?_ She sweated under his gaze, uncomfortable with how he looked at her.

"Thank you very much, Pipes." he muttered, grinning a pearly white smile. With that, he jumped back and walked to the exit of the diner, twirling his car keys in his left hand and holding onto his lighter with little lightning bolts in his right.

Piper blinked and shouted at him, grinning, "You're welcome!"

OH GOSH DAMN IT! CHRISTINA ALWAYS GOTTA RUIN IT! Anyways I think it'll get a little bit better then it'll get worse from here… bye bye peeps, until you read this again!


	20. Plans and a cowboy

The next day, High School was in its usual heights. Students ranging from grades 9-12 were walking around the school's campus, listening in on the announcements that were on the air.

"Bonjour. Here's your daily drought reminder: Don't hose your lawn, your car, or anybody else, for that matter." Annabeth said, rubbing her eyes of exhaustion and drowsiness. She yawned and stretched her arms, then continued her spiel on the speakers, "And remember, tickets for the big game go on sale . . . ."

On the eastern side of the campus, Khione and Medea had gathered the cheer leading team's core members (a.k.a. Drew, Lacy and Silena) around an outside lunch table, where the twins began their "Plan B".

"And then she told us that she was going to try to steal Jason away from you if that was the last thing she did." Khione sobbed, wiping away a tear. Medea started to cry, her mascara running down her cheeks. The girl blew her nose with a nearby napkin, "Our stepsister has always been jealous of you."

Drew jumped when Medea had blown her nose way too loud for the girl's liking, "Go on."

Khione breathed in a shaky breath, "Well, that's when she invented this whole "Cinderella plot". She got a hold of Jason's e-mail address and that's when she started the whole affair."

"We wanted to tell you sooner, but she threatened to kill us. She's such a monster." Medea cried into Khione's shoulder, her own shoulders shaking. Drew gave them a weary look, unsure if she should trust the two dimwits in front of her.

Khione noticed this and decided to pull out her second option of gaining the cheerleader's trust. "Look, if you don't believe us, look at the e-mails. She goes by PrincetonGirl818, but her real name is Piper McLean."

"And we're Khione and Medea." Medea said, wiping away more tears. Khione punched her shoulder and Karen muttered a soft, "Ow!"

When Khione handed Drew hard copies of Jason and Piper's chat conversations, Drew hesitated on looking through them. But after being reminded by Jason breaking up with her in the diner with Piper looking from afar, her hands shook in anger and grabbed the papers with no timid movements.

Subsequently when Drew finished reading the latest conversation between the McLean and her Grace, little veins appeared on the girl's face. "So that little boyfriend stealer thinks she can pull a fast one on me?" Drew looked up to the twins, who were looking ambivalent at Drew's livid expression.

Drew smirked, already thinking of a sharp plan that would bring the brunette McLean down. "Well, we'll just see about that."

Khione and Medea looked at each other, smirking. Unknown to Drew, Khione and Medea had given each other high fives, happy that the cheerleader had bought their story.

Medea leaned on the brick white walls inside Ancient High. Looking both her left and right, she noted to herself that there were many high schoolers walking in the hallways. Shaking her head and trying to get her head out of Cloud 9, Medea walked over to the opposite side of the hallway, where the window to the announcements office was.

Which was also where the blonde-head nicknamed "Wise-girl" hid in her armored lair.

Medea knocked on the office window and watched as Annabeth slid open the window and blinked, confused. The girl smiled sweetly, "Jason was really late today and asked me if you'd read this announcement."

Medea handed a folded piece of paper to the blonde-haired girl. Glancing at the paper, Annabeth tentatively opened the paper and flipped the "ON" button for the sound system. Reading the exact words written on the paper, Annabeth spoke through the microphone, catching some ears in the hallway and in the classrooms. "Cinderella, if you're listening, your prince wants to rendezvous with you after the pep rally. Nothing like a pep rally to warm up our prince."

As the announcements were off, Piper heard Jason's call. She smiled inwardly and adjusted her backpack on her shoulder as she walked in the halls. Hearing the bell, Piper walked to Percy's last class and waited for him outside the door. Once Percy was in her sights, Piper walked to him.

"Percy! I talked to him. And not as Cinderella. I talked to him as me, Piper, and he didn't hate me." Piper smiled as Percy played with his shirt.

As his choice of wear for the day, Percy wore a typical cliché cowboy outfit. An old straw hat, a pair of blue jeans and a red plaid shirt with worn out cowboy boots later, Percy told Piper earlier in the morning that it was for him to "immerse himself as a unique character like Annie Oakley or Tom Edwin "Tom" Mix". Piper commented on him acting like a girl. He moped till they got to school.

"So you told him everything?" Percy questioned.

"No, not everything. Not the part about me being Cinderella. But I'm gonna go tell him right after the pep rally." Piper said. The brunette looked at Percy's clothes and chuckled, "You coming, cowboy?"

Percy's eyes widened and he smiled, "So you think I look like a real cowboy?"

Piper laughed, "Sure."

Oh no… this shouts disaster…. Poor poor Piper.


	21. Satanic Bullies and A Broken Dam

"Who we gonna beat?" Coach Ares yelled through the microphone, muttering under his breath his signature "We Are~!"

Right now, the Pep Rally was in high spirits, with everyone shouting and teenagers throwing around plastic beach balls and random acts of doing the wave throughout the entire event. It was inside the auditorium, which had more than enough space to hold the rowdy group of seniors and the stage was lit up like a light bulb, while the seats was left in the dark. As for seating arrangements, the football team was in the front row and the cheerleaders were performing their cheers about crushing their rivals, which were-

"The Giants!" the crowd shouted, grinning and similar determined faces reflected in the crowd. Ares grinned once more, "And when we gonna beat them?"

"Friday!" yelled the crowd in response, one of them being Jason. Behind the football team was the co-captain of the team; Zeus, who was on his cell phone and hungrily listening to the other person's voice. The man grinned a toothy grin and hung up. He tapped Jason shoulder, "Good news. I just got off the phone with Toma E. Fiore. You play well on Friday, and your future is set at USC football."

Jason looked over his shoulder and gave his dad a blank stare, "That's great, Dad."

"And who's gonna lead us to victory?" Ares yelled.

"Jason!" the crowd responded.

"I can't hear you!"

"Kill the Giants!"

"Jason!"

Ares screamed in joy when the crowd went wild. As the cheerleaders finished their cheers on the stage, Ares clapped his hands together, "The cheerleaders have put together a skit to help get us in the spirit."

The crowd had screamed loud once they saw the cheerleaders set up on the stage, wearing their red, black and gold uniforms proudly. Drew walked to the left side of the stage, from the viewpoint of the crowd, and held a white binder in her arms. When she reached the other side of the stage, she cleared her throat, "Thank you."

She opened up the binder and read, ''Once upon a time, there was a big, strong Warrior."

The crimson curtains were ruffled before Medea, dressed in High School's standard football uniform, and had twirled her way on the stage. In the crowd, the majority of the football team was laughing.

Drew continued, "He had a beautiful girlfriend, and his dad owned the biggest castle in all the land. But he still wasn't happy."

On the sides of the stage, some of the cheerleaders had made giant flash cards that had words like, "Awww~!" or "Everyone Laughs". The card that was held up was the "Sad Awww~!" The audience had done just that.

"If only he can find a princess, then she could kiss him, turn him into a Prince, and they would run away together. One night, after the scintillating warrior ditches his super-hot, senior-poll-most-popular girlfriend, he meets his princess." Drew said, watching as Khione, dressed in a way-too-poofy white dress, was carried onto the stage and waving to the crowd, which were laughing at the comical sight.

"Your highness." Medea said in a deep voice, bowing down to her sister. Khione grinned, lifting her dress and bowed as well, flashing her behind to the mob in their seats. The guys grinned mischievously.

Drew smiled a sickening sweet grin to the crowd, "Alas, it turned out that our warrior not only had a secret identity, but also had a secret e-mail relationship with a pen pal named Princeton Girl."

Towards the back of the auditorium sat Piper and Percy, who watched the play from afar. Noticing the similarities and signs, Piper's face paled and she fidgeted in her seat, already uncomfortable and knowing that no one else had the name "Princeton Girl" as their email address. "This isn't good." Percy muttered, sitting right next to her.

The cheerleaders on the stage had split the stage into two; one for Medea and the other for Khione. Handing a cell phone to Medea, Lacy walked to the other side of the stage, giving the other cell phone to Khione.

Medea spoke and pretended to text on the phone, "Dear Princeton Girl, I can't wait till we finally get to meet. You're the only one who understands the real me. The man who doesn't want to play USC football. But who wants to be at Princeton, with you."

Jason noticed the situation turn right around for him. He slouched in his seat and his hands started to sweat of perspiration. Nervousness poured out of the blonde's pores. Zeus saw his son's distress and tapped on his shoulder, "What are they talking about?"

Jason jumped and looked to his dad. "Nothing." he muttered and turned around in his seat.

"Dear Nomad, I want you to know who I am, but I'm scared! I'm scared that you'll reject me. And I've never had a real kiss before." Khione screeched, cupping her hands and whispering the last sentence to the array of students, which went crazy with laughs.

Piper's heart sunk deep within her and her eyes started to water, "I can't believe they're reading my e-mails." Percy looked at her and softly muttered, "Let's go."

Drew maliciously grinned and looked into the mass of seniors, looking for a certain brunette and blonde-haired teen. Once she spotted the horrified looks from both parties, Drew beamed with repugnant smugness, "But our princess had a secret too. She wasn't royalty at all, but a geek, a loser, a servant girl." Drew smirked even further when she saw Piper slide in her seat, her complexion as pale as white, fluffy clouds.

Zeus held Jason's shoulder in a firm grasp and leaned towards his son's ear, "Any ideas about this?" Jason looked forward, giving a hard glare to his ex.

With one last and final testimony, Drew stared into Piper's eyes with a hateful declaration. The cheerleader smirked, _All's fair in love and war_.

She spoke again, silencing the seniors.

"And who, may you ask, is this imposter? Give it up for the pretend princess, diner girl, Piper McLean!"

The stage light went black, covering the entire room in complete darkness. Then, a lone spotlight held on one place in the entire room; where Piper sat with a mortified look and everyone staring her way.

The entire room was silenced until they were filled with accusations, like-

"Ohhhhh!" the guys screamed, laughing at the poor McLean.

"That ugly bitch?!" a couple of Jason's fan girls yelled out.

"She's such a whore!"

"No one wants you!"

"Go die!"

Piper sat in her seat, frozen. Her limbs wouldn't move, her voice wouldn't speak up and her shoulders shook. Her brown orbs were wide open, staring at her feet and the irises in her eyes were darkening. She jumped once someone touched her shoulder and looked to that direction.

Percy was shaking her, worried beyond no belief for his childhood friend. He was yelling something at her, but the brunette couldn't hear him from the screams the crowd was emitting. Piper blinked, slowly ripping away from her dazed reverie. She looked up, seeing many angered and laughing faces looking at her, chanting the same line over and over.

"Diner girl!"

"Diner girl!"

"Diner girl!"

"Diner girl!"

Something triggered inside the girl; something that broke the dam that she had held in for eight years and counting. She started to cry silent tears, holding her hands to her mouth and watching all the faces cave near her.

Piper stood up shakily, feeling Percy's arms help her up from her seat. Glancing towards the stage, she saw her sisters chant over and over "Diner Girl" while pointing their pointer fingers at her and smiling. Looking away from the twins, Piper saw Drew smirk and cross her arms, cocking out her hip to the side.

Not wanting to stare in the satanic eyes of Drew, Piper looked downwards.

Big mistake.

Immediately when she looked downwards, she caught the eyes she had never wanted to see in her current state; Jason Grace.

The blonde had always wanted to know who his princess was from the minute he started talking to her at the dance. _But not like this_, he thought, resisting the urge to get up and hug the brunette that was crestfallen. His eyes widened and Jason's' pupils dilated tenfold once he saw Piper look to him with silver tears that cascaded down her pink cheeks.

Mortified and despondent, Piper couldn't take the pleading and helpless look from Jason. She closed her eyes and ran.

Ran away from the laughs.

_In these eyes, more than words, more than_

_Anything that I've spoken_

Ran away from the looks.

Ran away from Drew.

_As the skies, turn to gray my heart's_

_Just about to crack open_

Ran away from her devil twin sisters.

Ran away from the catcalls, mocking laughs and suffocating glares.

_So the story goes_

_There's something you should know_

_Before I walk away and I blow the ending_

And most importantly, Jason.

_I never wanna be without you_

_Oh no, here I go now you know_

_What I feel about you_

_There's no runnin'_

Running to the nearest exit, Piper threw her arms against the double doors and pushed her way through the drowning noise, ignoring Percy when he yelled out a loud, "Come on!"

_I must have been wrong to doubt you_

_Oh no there I go, no control_

Jason watched Piper run away farther from him. Neglecting Travis's laughs, Leo's grinning smile and his father's cry, Jason turned in his seat and glared a murderous glare to his ex, who stood proud and tall at her work. Drew blinked innocently at Jason and mouthed out six words to him.

"All's fair in love and war."

_And I'm fallin'_

_So now you know_

I wanna cry, that was so fucked up and sad. Ugh I also wanna slap Jason for not going after her! IDIOT! tell me what you guys think of the bitch- i mean Drew. Oh and btw the song is called _Now You Know by Hillary Duff_.


	22. Go Piper!

The only room in the entire McLean grounds that Piper felt like herself was her room in the attic. It was where she could bask in the sunlight that came through the windows and act like herself once she came back from school. The same place where her worst memories would resurface and she would cry to herself, not wanting her evil step-family to hear her chokes of depression. Now, readers, guess where our poor beloved brown-haired girl was right now?

Christina knocked on the brunette's door. "Piper?" she said in a muffled voice.

Lifting her head up off the bed, Piper wiped away her tears and sniffled in her snot, "Go away!"

"But, Piper, you've got a letter from Princeton." Christina worriedly said as she opened Piper's bedroom door, holding in her hands a platter of freshly made chocolate chip cookies. Piper's eyes widened and she shot straight up, staring at her step-mother's hand that held the letter. With shaky fingers, Piper grabbed the letter and turned her back from Christina, ripping the envelope open.

"What does it say?" Christina said, sitting on the edge of Piper's bed.

Piper's face fell once again that day.

**Dear Parent/Guardian,**

**We are displeased to announce that your daughter, Piper McLean, has not made it in our esteemed college-**

Piper breathed in a gulp of air, "I didn't get in."

Christina eyes widened comically, "Oh, no! And you studied so hard!"

The brunette teen smiled a bitter grin and chuckled to herself, "I can't believe I actually thought I had a chance."

"Piper, I'm heartbroken. Life can be so unfair." Christina shook her head, looking to the hardwood floors. She looked back up to Piper, who was wiping away silent tears, and smiled a soft smile, "Well, just look at the bright side. You have a job at the diner for the rest of your life."

Christina mentally grinned once Piper looked at her with disbelief and grief. Handing the platter of cookies to Piper, Christina took a chocolate cookie, "You want a cookie? They're so moist."

Piper's shoulders started to shake and she shook her head with a tight smile on her face. Christina blinked and smiled in return, standing up and softly closing Piper's bedroom door.

Once Christina left Piper's sanctuary, the brunette teen released her facade and pebble-sized tears ran down the brown haired girl's cheeks and dipped at the end of her chin. Sucking in a shaky breath, Piper left her body fall on her bed, holding the back of her hands close to her eyes. At this point, the brunette girl was shriveled up in a ball and hysterically crying to herself, feeling that there was no reason to hold back all her pent up frustrations.

After all, how would you feel after you had been humiliated by your entire class and your "Prince Charming" didn't even blink an eye for you when you left in a hurry?

Leaning way too far off the edge of her bed, Piper fell and hit the floor, banging her head in the process. "Ow!" she cried, clutching her brunette tresses. Prying her sore eyelids open, Piper looked underneath her bed, finding the Fairy Tale book that her father would read to her at night.

_I'm having a day from hell_

_It was all going so well before you came_

Crawling to the large book, Piper slid the book to her and sniffled, opening to the first page. Glancing at the first picture, her eyes hardened and she threw the book across the room, hating the picture of a princess and her father/king holding her in his arms with the mother off to the side, smiling.

Piper pulled her knees to her chest and buried her head deep, slowly spiraling down the depths of insanity and depression.

_And you told me you needed space_

Jason stared at his computer screen, leaning back in his chair and pressing his right hands' knuckles to his lips, a sure sign that he was in deep concentration. Watching the line blinker flash on his screen, he had no idea what to write to PrincetonGirl- I mean, Piper. The only sentence that he had started writing to her was-

**Dear Piper,**

And that was it.

The blonde furrowed his eyebrows, slouching in his chair. For once in his life, Jason Grace was stumped on what to say to a girl that he an interest in. Which never happened.

_With a kiss on the side of my face, not again_

Piper was a girl that was more special, unique and, as he described her, "weird" than the kind of girls that had followed him, trailed after his burning hot figure, and the kind of girls that loved every glance, hair, and lingering touch (if you call a handshake an everlasting feeling) that he had possessed.

_And not to mention the tears I shed_

_But I should've kicked your ass instead_

Piper wasn't glitz and glam, yes, but she was simple. She saw through his mask that he wore everyday throughout school and broke through his safe barrier of fooling everyone. Jason was himself when he would talk to the brunette, the times where he could say whatever he wanted and she wouldn't judge him were bliss to him.

And PrincetonGi- Piper was the exception.

_I really have to stop calling her that_, he sighed. Grabbing the mouse, he moved the pointer to the end of his greeting and clicked. Pressing the backspace button, he cursed to himself when he remembered that he did absolutely nothing when Piper was mortified in front of his entire class.

_I need intervention_

_Attention, stop temptation to scream, baby_

The following day, Piper walked through Ancient Highs' halls with her baseball cap on and an old green jacket, keeping her head down and trying to avoid the flowing crowd of hormonal teenagers. There still would be a few stragglers that would point and stare, causing all sorts of trouble, but other than that, no one talked about and/or to her all day. With the exception of the nerds, Dan Straight, and Percy.

_'Cause baby everything is left up straight from the heart_

_Tell me, what do you do when it all falls apart?_

"People like her don't belong in our world, Jason." Drew said, making Jason jump and turn towards her. Jason was actually looking off to the side, leaning on the lockers while watching Piper get through her day with an aura of sorrow. One would call it stalking, but Jason was not going to admit that anytime soon. Being quiet and observing her from afar is what he thought of it.

Realizing that it was only Drew, Jason scowled and turned away from her, walking and passing by Piper, hoping to share a glance with her.

Unfortunately, Piper didn't even notice the blonde, as she was staring at her feet while walking to her next class. Jason's mood shrunk once he saw Piper's red and puffy-pink eyes.

_Gotta pick myself up, where do I start?_

_'Cause I can't turn to you when it all falls apart, no, ohh_

Piper scrubbed the dirt and grime off the floors, wiping her brow of sweat and flipping back her bangs that covered the majority of her forehead. Dipping her brush back in the soapy bucket, she scrubbed some more before she got fed up with her clunky roller shoes getting in the way. Trying to stand up, she slipped a few times, grabbing a nearby seat as support. Once she had gotten steady, Piper unlaced her shoes, rubbing her hands on her face in pure exhaustion.

Rachel, at this point, had turned to the brunette's direction once she heard someone fall. Watching as Piper struggled to get up, Rachel grabbed Piper's arms when the stubborn brunette went back to work with no shoes on.

"Piper, what are you doing?" Rachel said, staring at Piper's hunched form crawl on the floors of** CHRISTINA'S**. Piper grabbed her arm back and continued her work, "I'm trying to get these floors clean."

Rachel sighed, giving a small smile, "Come on, sweetie, get up." Helping the brunette out, Rachel smiled to Piper when said girl had gave an exasperated look to the artistic boss. "What I meant is, what are you doing with your life?"

"I'm diner girl. I'm doing what diner girls do, Rachel." Piper sputtered out, her eyes tearing up when she was reminded by the taunts and screams of her alleged nickname.

"Baby, what's gotten into you? You don't even realize how blessed you are." Rachel said, holding Piper's hands, "Look, you've got a whole family behind you."

Gesturing to the staff of **CHRISTINA'S**, Rachel continued, smiling when Piper looked to her feet and the corners of her mouth would twitch, "We have faith in you. And you gotta have faith in yourself."

As soon as Rachel had uttered those words, the three devils from hell arrived at their beloved diner. Slamming open the door, Khione scrolled her fingers on her new iPhone 5 while chewing her favorite bubblegum. While the wicked witch girl had done this, the guitar above the cash register had fallen off the wall and had ripped up the hot-pink and chocolate-brown wallpaper, revealing the previous wallpaper.

Piper looked over to the ripped wall and her eyes widened once she saw her father's signature quote in big, italicized letters.

Looking up from her phone, Khione noticed that Piper's eyes were fixated on a certain point other than herself. Gasping, Khione yelled to her mother, who walked inside just in time, "Mother! Piper just ruined your wall."

"What?" Christina said, looking away from her precious daughter to the tarnished wall. "Yes, you did! Well, that's gonna come out of your paycheck. And cover up those stupid words." Christina flicked her fingers to Piper, motioning her to get back to work.

"_**Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game**_." Piper muttered, a small, but slowly growing, smile formed on her face.

"All right. I'm going off to get some more lipo. Come on, girls. Piper, I need you to clean the pool tonight." Christina said, fixing her chest full of cash. She walked not even two steps out of the diner before she heard the one word Christina never thought would come out of Piper's mouth.

Piper stood up straighter, "No."

Christina paused in her step, the twins right behind her. She turned around, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I quit." Piper said, repeating herself. Relaxing her shoulders, Piper licked her chapped lips and a fire grew in her determined, but stubborn eyes, "I quit this job. I quit your family. And I'm moving out."

At this point, Christina scoffed and started to laugh, her daughters following in step, "Oh, and where are you gonna live?"

"With me."

Piper turned around and her eyes widened, _Rachel?_

Christina squinted her eyes, "You can't just walk out on me."

"You know what, Christina? You can mess with your hair, your nose and your face. And you can even mess with my dad's diner," Piper said, turning towards Christina. Smirking, Piper spoke, "But you're through messing with me." Taking a step forward, Piper started to walk out of the diner, standing proud and tall.

"Wait up, Piper!" Rachel said following Piper.

"You take one more step, and you're fired." Christina growled, gritting her pearly-white teeth.

"Oh, no, that won't be necessary, because I quit too. And you know what? The only reason why I put up with you all these years is because of that girl." Rachel yelled, pointing to Piper in emphasis. Piper smiled back at Rachel in response.

Rachel smirked, reaching for her gold hoop earrings, "Now that she's free of you, nothing is stopping me from kicking your butt."

Christina's face paled and she hid herself behind Khione and Medea, "Come on, no. Not my face. It's much newer than the girls. Go for the girls!"

"Mom!" the twins cried, giving an incredulous look at their mother.

"Rachel? Rachel!" Piper yelled, stopping Rachel mid-step from grabbing a wine bottle from underneath the counter top. Piper shook her head, "She's not even worth it."

Rachel glanced from Piper to Christina, deciding on what to do in her mind. Taking a giant step towards Christina (and smirking when said woman screamed and cowered behind her girls), Rachel had a bit of a swagger in her step when she approached Piper, who was walking outside of the diner with a triumphant grin etched on her face.

"You're right." muttered Melli, who dropped the plate that she was drying off. "You know what? I quit too."

"Me too. Hey, Rachel, Melli! Hold up, I need a ride!" yelled Hedge, throwing his spatula behind him and slamming the kitchen door open.

Watching as her co-workers walk out of CHRISTINA'S with grins and now jobless lives, Hazel puffed out her chest and smiled, "See you." She roller bladed out of the diner, following her friends.

All and all, once the regulars and the customers of the diner started to leave and yell out similar cries of goodbye, Christina had lost some hope that there would be no more CHRISTINA'S.

Dionysus stopped in front of Christina, stared at her. "Send me a bill." he said, munching on his bacon with toasted bread 'n butter and walked out of the diner.

YESSS! Finally! Piper did it! I feel so proud of her! :D


	23. Listen

"Christina actually thought you were gonna slug her." Piper laughed, folding up her clean pair of clothes in the living room.

After the fiasco at **CHRISTINA'S**, Rachel had drove Piper to her house and grabbed all of her things, most of which were still in the boxes. Once they finished getting all of Piper's belongings out of Satan's home, Rachel drove Piper back to her home, where the brunette could be whomever she wanted from now on.

Rachel scoffed and fought back a smile, "I was gonna do more than that."

"I had no idea that you were that tough."

"Yeah, but I always knew that you were." Rachel grinned, taking a some of her paint out and drawing designs on her arm

"Rachel, are you sure that this is okay?" Piper timidly said, stopping her folding and looked to the red head. Rachel blinked, then smiled, "Piper, I wouldn't have it any other way."

Smiling softly, Piper jumped on the creamy colored couch and sighed in bliss, closing her eyes in the process, "I haven't felt this much at home in such a long time."

"I'm sure, compared to the Addams Family." Rachel laughed. Seeing Piper not comment, the red head turned around, "What's on your mind?"

Piper stood up, stretching her muscles, "I gotta do something tonight. Don't wait up for me, okay?"

Running to the front door, Piper grabbed her car keys and jogged to her blue Mustang. Rachel looked out of the front window, grinning when she saw Piper's determined face in her rear view mirror.

"Welcome to the start of tonight's game between the Mighty Giants and the Ancients High Fighters!" rang the announcer from the announcing booth.

The sky was a crisp dark black that was speckled with tiny silver lights and the occasional fluffy gray clouds that would flutter across the scenery. The bleachers were filled to the brim of both Giants and Ancients fans, each screaming their own string of cheers and dancing their own moves. The cheerleaders of each school were waving their pom poms and the school mascot of each school would start to bicker with one another.

The announcer continued, "Big welcome to all returning alumni to tonight's 38th annual homecoming game!"

Inside the school were the jocks and football players that were getting dressed for their game and going over their game plans. Piper stood outside the boys locker room, knowing the person she had wanted to talk to was inside. Shaking her head of pessimistic thoughts, she pushed the door open, ignoring the leering looks of the guys.

Going down one hallway of half naked boys and having to shove some shirtless away wasn't on her list, but it was a consequence that had to be taken for granted. "Check it!" some boys had yelled.

"Chick at 3 o'clock!"

"Hey, diner girl!" To this comment, Piper had shoved the half-naked guy into the nearby lockers, ignoring the dirty look the male gave her, and walked away.

"What's she doing in here?"

"What are you doing in here!"

Finally finding the back of his head, Piper walked over to him, tapping his shoulder and noticing all the looks from Leo and Travis. Jason turned around in his seat, jumping and standing up straight away once he saw-

"Pipes!" Jason exclaimed, standing straight and seeing her determined glare. Jason held up his hands, dropping his jersey on the floor, "Okay, I know you think I'm just some-!"

"Coward? Phony?" Piper said, taking a step towards him and poking his naked, but chiseled, chest. Every male in the locker room stopped what they were doing and watched and listened as the two started to talk. It was ironic, because the locker rooms were usually louder than the cafeteria. Now, one could hear a pin drop because of the tense atmosphere.

"Okay, just listen."

"No, you listen." Piper said, crossing her arms and fixing her maroon colored camisole with cream colored skirt, "You turned out to be exactly who I thought you were. I never pretended to be somebody else. It's been me all along. And it was me who was hurt in front of everybody."

Seeing the flash of hurt and pain run through his eyes, Piper sighed, "Look, I didn't come here to yell at you, okay? I came to tell you I know what it feels like to be afraid to show who you are. I was. But I'm not anymore."

Piper breathed, sucking in a shaky breath, "And the thing is, I don't care what people think about me because I believe in myself. And I know that things are gonna be okay."

At this point, small tears were forming in the corner of her eyes, blurring her vision. She wiped them away with a smudge of her sleeve. "But even though I have no family and no job and no money for college, it's you that I feel sorry for."

"Heads up. Yo, five minutes." Travis said, walking from around the corner, twirling his jersey.

"I'm coming." Jason yelled, not faltering his eyes away from the girl in front of him.

Looking behind Jason, Piper shook her head, "I know that guy that sent those emails is somewhere down inside of you. But I can't wait for him, because waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought."

Piper, teary-eyed and still holding determined glare, stared into the blonde's onyx orbs. She blinked and wiped away the last of her tears and sniffled, "Useless and disappointing." Walking backwards for a couple of steps, Piper turned around and walked to the exit, not looking back.

"Pipes!" Jason said, finally getting his voice back. The cat-calls and wolf-howls rang through the air with the football team laughing and smirking at their team captain. Jason ignored all this, turning back to his locker and slamming it shut, frustrated with the world.

Piper exited the musky and deodorant-smelling locker room, taking a huge sigh and slumping her shoulders, _So much for true love_.

"Piper!" Said girl looked up, seeing Percy from across the emptied hallway. Walking over to him, Piper smiled, "Hey. What are you doing here?"

"Rachel told me where you might be. I thought you could use a friend." Percy said, a worry emotion poured on his face. Grabbing Piper's arm, Percy pulled the brunette in for a hug, "Come here."

Embracing Piper, Percy continued, "Piper I'm so proud of you. You did- your stepmom and Jason, all in one day." Letting the brunette go, Percy kept her at arm's length, "How do you feel?"

Piper smiled and nodded her head, "I'll let you know when I can catch my breath. Let's do something tonight."

Scratching the back of his neck, Percy sheepishly looked to Piper, "Well, I was actually thinking about going to the game, but I understand if you don't wanna do that."

Piper paused. "No, I'll go."

"Really? You'll go to the game?" Percy said, looking at Piper with an incredulous expression.

"Yeah. I can handle it now. It'll be our first and last. And besides, if I don't go, who else is gonna explain the game to you?" Piper giggled. The raven-haired man nodded his head in agreement.

Walking down the dark and empty hallway, Piper started to add in a little skip in her step. With Percy by her side, Piper glanced at his outfit. It was a red plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a couple of buttons unhooked, leaving Percy's white tank top exposed to the world. Wearing a simple pair of blue jeans and a pair of black converse high tops, Piper smiled at his choice of wear.

Glancing at him from the side, the brunette smiled, "I like what you're wearing. What character are you today?"

"Myself." Percy said, looking straight ahead and not minding the silent atmosphere.

"I think it's your best look."

Percy looked to Piper, who was smiling and looking straight ahead. He grinned, "Thank you."

Holy shift. That was intense! Well not really but still, I like Percy's look and I hope Jason learned his lesson! He should've went after her!


	24. Prince Charming

"Come on, everybody. Weren't they great? Let's hear it for them. Let's give our cheerleaders a big hand. Make some noise!" the announcer shouted in the microphone. The speakers blared and the crowd went wild, doing a union wave and smiling.

In the bleachers sat Khione and Medea, dancing and cheering for Jason. Sharing a glance with Medea, Khione smirked and gave the signal, which triggered both of them into "cheer-mode". Trying to do their signature move, the Ares, Khione perfected the move, while Medea had some trouble.

Which was kicking a bystander in the face.

On accident.

On the track, the cheerleaders were continuing their cheers. Their captain was off on the side talking to her subordinates, merrily.

"Jason and I are almost back together. It isn't official or anything, but it's on." Drew smiled, nodding her head. Lacy smiled while Silena frowned, fixing her glasses.

In the bleachers, Piper and Percy passed by shouting fans and squirmed their way around the excited and pumped fans. Finally finding a spot available, which was in the middle of the bleachers, Piper muttered, "Sorry, guys." to those who were nearby.

"Sorry." Percy said, sitting down next to Piper when she showed up. Smiling at her, Percy looked across the field, grazing over the popular football players. "Okay, everybody. Get ready. Here they come!" the announcer shouted, the crowd going wild and waving red-gold-and-black foam fingers.

Looking over to the brunette next to him, Percy smiled, "I'm glad you came, Piper." Said girl just shrugged her shoulders and looked over on the field, feeling numb for some reason.

The cheerleaders started to scream and jump up and down, waving their pom-poms in the air and getting the crowd wild. The announcer grinned at this, "The defending regional conference champions, your very own Fighting Ancients!"

Percy started to scream as well, saying the occasional "Whoop!" or shout out to the football players "Suck yo' dick Giants!" Piper looked over to him, an amused smile on her face. Shaking her head and laughing, she looked back to the field, watching as the football players were armed and ready to fight. She started bobbing her crossed legs up and down in nervousness when she found Jason in her sights. From there, Piper was uneasy for the remainder of the game.

The school band was blaring their trumpets and crashing their cymbals while playing their default school anthem, making the football fans wilder and intrigued more in the game.

As the waves of excited fans kept on shouting, Jason's words had rung through Piper's mind and thoughts.** I live in a world full of people pretending to be something they're not, but when I talk to you I'm the guy I wanna be.**

Piper smiled half-heartedly to herself_, Yeah. Like a sea of fake and liars, and only one oyster holds your pearl. But, who's to say that your oyster isn't your pearl, but just a clown fish in disguise?_ The brunette sighed.

Down below on the field, Jason had started to throw the football to Leo, feeling weary and depressed, but not showing it upon his facade. In the background, he could clearly hear the announcer shout, but the blonde was lost in his thoughts. "Both the Giants and the Ancients enter the game tied for the lead in the conference winner of tonight's game will advance to the playoffs for the state championship."

Licking his taped-up fingers, Jason glanced towards the bleachers, hoping that Piper was hidden beneath the crowd. Finding her seated in the middle of the center bleacher sitting next to Percy, Jason let out a shaky sigh and watched as Piper glazed her eyes over the field. Here, he decided to glance away from her, feeling like a disappointment then an obligated player.

"Jason!" Zeus shouted, moving past the many football players and catching his son's attention. Jason turned around, watching as his father walked up to him. "Jason. All right, buddy. This is the big one, all right? You stay focused and win it," Zeus said, giving his son a reassuring smile. The man placed his hands on Jason's shoulders and rubbing them in comfort, "Everyone is counting on you. All right? Don't sweat it. You'll be fine."

"Zeus!" shouted an unknown voice. Zeus turned around, grinning a pearly white grin, "Hey, Poseidon! How you doing, pal?" Walking away from Jason, Zeus gave his son a winning smile,_ I have faith in you, Jason._

Jason stood there, unable to give him an answer nor a look of gratitude. Turning around to Leo, Jason licked the tip of his fingers once more. He grabbed the football, holding on with a better grip, and threw the oddly shaped ball towards the curly-haired teen.

"Let's do it again! One more time." yelled Leo, catching the ball.

**[The beginning of the song starts here. Queue acoustic/regular guitar.]**

At last, the game had started. As each of the football players had set themselves in a V-shaped formation, squatting down and keeping their hands on their thighs, one football player had set the ball on a small, orange stand in front of the Ancients. Running back to his spot, another football player was set up standing at the tip of the V-shaped formation. Kicking his cleated heel off the green ground, the player then ran towards the football, launching it in the air and officially starting the game. Whistles tweeted and the Ancients were running.

_There's no one in town I know_

The clock on the other side of the field was lit up like a light bulb, showing everyone the scores and time left for the game.

**14:58**

**0 - Guest**

**0 - Home**

**Period - 1**

**None - Down**

**None - To Go**

The football players ran a mass of confusion and utter chaos on the field. Shoves and tackles were everywhere for both teams and the referees could only do so much. Tweeting a silver instrument was just a silver instrument with noise. And an annoyance.

_You gave us some place to go._

The refs whistled their whistles, pausing the game and setting up the field. The Ancients cheerleaders were jumping up and down, shouting cheer after cheer in scantily short tops that showed off their smooth abdomen and standard pleated skirts. Pom-poms were shaking, noise was shrilling and ringing in the air and the crowd screamed at the football players.

_I never said thank you for that._

Later on in the game, the football players from both teams were sweating and beads of perspiration formed on their foreheads. The crowds' cheers never died down, nor did the cheerleaders. Surprisingly, it was almost the end of the game, with only a few seconds to spare.

"Down, set, 28 guarding, 28 guarding!" Jason shouted, looking back and forth at the many players. Gritting his teeth, Jason held his position.

_I thought I might get one more chance._

Piper looked at Jason, seeing himself hold his position. The crowd, by this point, was standing up, towering over the sitting blonde. Going with the flow, Piper stood up, trying to find the helmeted blonde.

"Hike!" Jason shouted, feeling the football being tossed backwards to him and he backed up, throwing the ball to a nearby player.

_What would you think of me now,_

Travis grabbed the ball, running towards the goal 'til he was tackled by one of the more defining Giants. Scowling at the player that had bombarded him, Travis rolled away from the Giant dropped the ball.

**0:09**

**17 - Guest**

**13 - Home**

**Period - 4**

**4 - Down**

**10 - To Go**

_So lucky, so strong, so proud?_

"The clock is stopped with nine seconds left in the game. The Giants need one touchdown to win." the announcer said over the crowd.

"I love football! I love football!" Percy said, holding his hands up and waving his foam finger. The mass of people yelled, clapping their hands and smiling the entire time. Piper glanced across the bleachers, noticing her sister cheering and impaling more victims and the cheerleaders shouting, clapping their hands. Shrugging her hands and placing them awkwardly behind her back, Piper wearily tried to look enthusiastic of the whole ordeal.

_I never said thank you for that,_

"I love football!" Percy shouted once more, not caring at whoever looked his way. Piper looked at him, and breathed out a laugh. Percy grinned, "Whoo-hoo!"

_Now I'll never have a chance._

The players all geared up on the field gathered on their sides of the field, signaling a group meeting.

_May angels lead you in._

"Jason! Jason! Jason! Jason! Jason!" The crowd chanted, jumping up and down in jitters.

_Hear you me my friends._

Feeling a queasy lurch in her abdomen, Piper started looking around, seeing as everyone was confident that the blonde in the helmet could surely win the championship. The anxiety inside Piper was building up, reaching every fiber of her being and making her feel uneasy and almost alone in the sea of people.

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go._

_May angels lead you in._

Pulling at Percy's sleeve, Piper worriedly pleaded, "Percy," Said guy looked over to his best friend, "I thought that I could handle this, but I really can't. I'm gonna go."

Noticing his friend's distress, Percy kept quiet for a moment. Piper glanced back at the field, seeing that Jason was talking with his team. Getting a queasy feeling once more, Piper rocked her body on her heels, trying to keep herself calm and relaxed. Percy, seeing as to who she was worked up about, gave a reassuring smile, nodding his head, "You know what? I'll tell you how it ends, okay?"

"Come on!" Zeus shouted, grinning at his succeeding son. Ares smiled, "Do it, We Are!"

Jason grinned back, giving them a small wave to them. Kneeling on his knee, Jason glanced over the crowd. He sat up straighter once he saw Piper move from her spot and walk away without Percy by her side. _She's leaving the game?_

_So what would you think of me now,_

The crowd was chanting his name over and over, but he didn't hear it. The sound was dull and small compared to seeing Piper leave the bleachers and possibly going home, to which he had no idea where it was. A bottled up feeling of panic coursed through his veins and Jason couldn't feel anything but helpless.

The girl that he thought he had a chance with was leaving the game.

His dad was counting on him.

The crowd was depending on his win.

Everyone was watching his every move.

Everything was on his shoulders.

"This is the one. This is the one, Jason. This is the one." Zeus yelled to Jason, giving him a big grin.

_So lucky, so strong, so proud?_

Jason looked back at his team that was hovering over him. Seeing the confused faces of Frank and the ready-for-anything faces of Travis and a few others, Jason couldn't help but stare, _Is this what I want? A football player, or being what I want to be?_

_I never said thank you for that,_

Travis sent him a glance that read "What-are-you-waiting-for?". Thinking over his thoughts of Piper, Jason gave a slow nod to his teammates, before grinning his signature Grace grin, "Sorry, boys."

_Now I'll never have a chance._

Jason took off his helmet and started to run towards the bleachers, ignoring Travis's shout, "Where are you going?"

_May angels lead you in._

"What's he-? What is he-?" Zeus said, shocked at his son's behavior.

Jason glanced back at the crowd, finding Piper's head of brown hair that was inching its way to the stairs. Smiling, Jason started to run faster, before Zeus caught his arm and stopped him.

_Hear you me my friends._

"What's the problem?" Ares said, holding his clipboard in his right hand.

"What are you doing?" Zeus said, giving a worried glance to Jason. Said boy just gave a shrug of his shoulders and grinned, "I'm out of here."

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go._

Zeus blinked and a bead of sweat ran down his collar, "What? You're throwing away your dream!"

"No, Dad. I'm throwing away yours," Jason said, shaking his head. Looking on the bench, Jason grabbed Leo's shoulder and pulled him up, "It's your game now. Go get them."

_May angels lead you in._

In that moment, Zeus watched his son run towards the bleachers, seeing as his eyes were glued to a certain brown-haired girl. The man blinked, finally fitting the puzzle pieces together. He didn't want football, just love. At the corner of his mouth, Zeus' smile broke out, an understanding look and a sense of compassion flowed throughout his body.

_May angels lead you in._

"Substituting for Grace is number 23, Leo Valdez." the announcer said, confused as to the new line-up. The crowd's cheers were enforced by more shouts of confusion, then back to cheering for their team. Somehow, during the whole scene, the mass of humans shouted louder than before, if that was even possible.

Reaching the metal fence that encased the crowd, Jason found Piper's head was closer to the stairs, meaning she was about to escape his clutches.

_May angels lead you in._

"Jason!" Drew shouted, her minions behind her.

"Jason, go get her!" Zeus shouted, grinning from ear to ear.

_May angels lead you in._

Climbing the stairs, Jason caught Piper's wrist when she had stepped down on the last step of the metal stairs.

_May angels lead you in._

Feeling a slight tugging on her wrist, Lucy turned around, expecting to give a "Lucy Kick" to the pervert that was holding onto her wrist like it was her lifeline. She did not expect-

"Jason, what are you doing?" the brunette said, feeling Jason's hand slowly letting go of her tiny wrist. She rubbed it until the redness had died down and faded to nothing but a peachy glow. The crowd at this point died down by a little, but there were some on-lookers that saw the football player walk up to the random girl.

"Something I should've done a long time ago." he breathed, catching his breath. Looking at him with a confused glance, Piper studied his tanned appearance.

When nothing appeared out of the ordinary, Piper smiled, blinking at Jason. Jason grinned, slowly leaning into Piper's presence. Closing the distance between them, Jason held Piper's chin in between his thumb and his pointer finger softly and grinned before the contact of Piper's lips and his were connected.

**[Skip to 4:01]**

_May angels lead you in._

_Hear you me my friends._

The sky was a crisp dark black that was speckled with tiny silver lights. More dark gray clouds formed and a small droplet of water had formed, falling from the sky.

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go._

Coincidentally, this raindrop had landed on Jason's cheek, which set off a domino effect and sent more raindrops to fall. Jason and Piper paused from their act of PDA and looked up to the sky, feeling more raindrops fall down.

_May angels lead you in._

Giggling, Piper looked back at a grinning Jason, whose eyes were kept on the sky. Slowly looking back down, Jason smiled softly, little droplets landing on his skin, "Sorry I waited for the rain."

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go._

_May angels lead you in._

Lucy nodded her head, rain landing on her as well. She smiled, "Its okay." The two grinned at each other, then continued their display of affection with happiness and joy.

**[End of "Hear You Me" by Jimmy Eat World. Queue "Friend" by Kaitlyn]**

"No!" screamed Khione, horrified that her step-sister was lip-locking with her Jason. Medea stood off on the sidelines, frozen.

"Oh, my God," Percy said, seeing that Piper finally got her Prince Charming. He laughed, grinning and happy that Piper was finally getting her happy ending.

Drew swallowed down a scoff, trying not to cry at the scene in front of her. Lacy gritted her teeth in anger and Silena smiled at the school's newest couple.

Kissing back with more ferocity, Piper slowly placed her arms around Jason's neck, clutching him closer and running a hand through his soaked pink hair. Jason lifted her up slightly, grinning when he felt a smile on the brunette's face.

The rain had pelted down harder than before. Zeus's shirt clung to his body and his hair stuck to his face. But at the moment, he was happy for his son._ He finally realized_, Zeus grinned and slapped Ares's back, taking the coach's cap and placing it on his own head.

Half the mass of people were cheering and laughing with their friends, while the other, more female-populated part was crying over the fact that Jason Grace was, indeed, off the market. And he was bought by Diner Girl Piper McLean as well. How sad is that? Plus the rain wasn't helping at all, only smudging the girl's makeup, making them more hideous.

And Khione and Medea? They were crying over the fact that their ugly step-sister had gotten their dream man without even using a finger.

"Touchdown! The Fighting Ancients have won. They've done it. They won the game!" the announcer shouted, the crowd distracted by this and shouting and cheering like there was no tomorrow. Jason and Piper stopped kissing, looking at the field and seeing the football team were in a group hug, smiling through the thick rain.

"Oh, my," Percy breathed, looking at the scoreboards, then back to his best friend. Running a hand through his wet locks, Percy breathed in the crisp air and shook his head, "You gotta love high school."

_Don't have to be tough,_

_Don't have to be cute,_

_Don't need to know anything any time,_

Looking back to Jason, Piper grinned before kissing him back, this time with an added effect; the famous French-Kissing. Catching Jason off guard, Piper pulled back, watching as Jason's face contorted to confusion, to bliss and then to utter embarrassment, blushing from head to toe and his face basically glowing in red.

_It's alright if you're a little bit out of it,_

_I don't care_

_I just wanna be, I just wanna be your friend._

Piper laughed, and although she was soaked to the bone, nothing could get any better than this.

_Don't have to be cool _

_Don't have to be smart _

_Don't have to be tough_

_Don't have to be cute _

_Don't need to know everything all the time_

_Anything any time _

_I just wanna be your friend_

_I just wanna be your friend_

That is the ending my friends…. Hoped you liked it as much as I did! :D PEACE!


	25. Epiloge

**So we won the big game that day. But what I remember most was I got my prince and a really bad cold. After that, it was like everything fell into place.**

When the game was over, Jason escorted Piper to Percy's car, where the raven haired man was waiting patiently for the couple. Percy smiled when he noticed the couples' hands were laced and intertwined with each others. Taking Piper and opening the passenger seat's door, Percy smiled to Jason, "Thank you."

Jason blinked, "What for?"

"For giving Piper some happiness." Percy smirked, walking towards the driver door. He opened it and looked back at the confused blonde. "Keep her safe for me, alright?"

This time, it was Jason's turn to grin, "Don't worry. A Grace keeps his promises."

The next day, Piper and Rachel arrived back at Christina's home (they didn't bother calling the house "home" anymore) The brunette claimed that she left a few things back in her old room.

Jogging up the steps for the last time, Piper ignored her stepsister's glares or her stepmother's malicious cries. Opening the door, Piper glanced around her room for the last time.

Old band posters were gone and left piled up in a cardboard box somewhere in the corner of the room, trinkets of young and aged disappeared, the walls bare with the remaining tan line of where posters, school papers and ornaments used to be. Piper's bed sheets were folded up in the middle of the old mattress and little things, like books or small items laid on Piper's desk.

While in the midst of cleaning and packing, Piper found her Fairy Tale book, thrown off in the corner of the attic and still faced on the ground, with pages crumpled and the spine of the book facing up. Crawling over to it, she dusted it off and decided to place it in her labeled "Precious Moments" box, had she not seen a blue folded slip of paper fall from the book. Blinking, Piper closed the book and kicked it to the side, reaching for the blue document.

Opening it, Piper started to read the contents of the document, a small smile moving its way on her face.

**My dad was right. The Fairy Tale book did contain something important.**

"Take this one and take the two cars in the front." Rachel gestured to the Volkswagens and Christina's car. Piper, standing off to the side, smiled as the cars were being set up on the tow car, watching as the men hooked them together with silver chains.

"Wait! Wait! I can pay for those parking tickets!" Christina screamed, running towards her car and the small knit group of people. The twins were not far behind, wearing matching outfits but in their preferable color.

Piper smirked as her step-mother begged at the county's attorney, "Actually, I'm selling your cars, Christina. For college tuition money." She smugly crossed her arms as Christina gave her a scowl made from hell.

"What gives you the idea you can sell our cars?" screeched Khione, her sister right behind her and glaring malicious glares to Piper. The brunette didn't feel the effect.

"She owns them." Rachel grinned, cocking her hip to the side. Piper, on the other hand, simply smiled and clapped her hands, "Exactly. I own them."

"I'm the county district attorney. Have you ever seen this before?" said the lawyer, holding up a blue document with a piece of typed paper stapled to it. Christina shook her head, frowning, "I've never seen that before."

"Isn't this your signature on the witness line?" the man said, flipping to the second page with Christina's signature at the bottom, big and in black ink.

"I have never seen my husband's hidden will before." Christina said innocently, shaking her head and denying the truth. The police man crossed his arms, "I'm afraid you're gonna have to come downtown with me, ma'am."

Blinking her brown eyes, Piper watched as Christina froze, then gave a jolt, running away from the two police officers that stood beside the lawyer. She laughed when Christina started to squeal when the cops were on her tail, running in heels and looking behind her every five minutes. Rachel guffawed on the sight and cried even more when the twins joined the run.

_This will be an everlasting love_

_This will be the one I've waited for_

_This will be the first time anyone has loved me_

**That hidden will stated that the house, the diner and everything belonged to me. It turned out my stepsisters knew where Christina had filed my real acceptance letter.**

Standing in front of two garbage cans, Piper stood with her hip cocked out and her arms crossed, a small smirk on her face. _Payback time bitches_, she smiled to herself when a gasping head shot out of one of the garbage cans.

Medea went through a lot of shit for her sister, Angel especially. Sure, she was being cheated out of her own life, being the side subordinate of her devil-like sister Khione, but she didn't care. As long as she got something out of the deal, she was perfectly content.

Going in a garbage can with old food and other substances she didn't know of; her final breaking point. "I'm so done with this!" she screamed at Piper, who only smiled even further and shook one finger, "Nuh-uh, you have to find my acceptance letter."

"But why?! You know you got in! Why make us go through all this?!"

"Yet this is only one obstacle of many. Time for reimbursement, honey." Piper grinned when Medea sunk lower in the trash can, a banana peel on her head and a scowl directed towards the ecstatic blonde.

One minute later, Khione's hand popped out of the garbage can, holding a crumpled up Princeton letter and shouting triumphantly, "I got it!"

_Oh, oh, oh_

_I'm so glad you found me in time_

_And I'm so glad that you've rectified my mind_

_This will be an everlasting love on me_

**My dad's diner was restored to its former glory. And my stepmother made a deal with the DA. She's working off her debt to society at Tristan's, under the watchful eye of my new partner.**

Rachel Dare leaned on one of the diner tables, smirking. She grinned when the sight from the corner of her eye had caught her attention.

Bent over in a mustard-yellow waitress uniform and scrubbing the floors ferociously, Christina's hair was tied up in a high bun, looking ragged. Sweat formed at the brow line of her hair and the woman was red in the face, blood flowing through her cheeks. Puffing out large breaths of air, Christina wheezed and stopped her mantra of scrubbing.

**And my stepsisters? They finally put their teamwork to good use.**

Medea skated her way on the diner floors, passing by each customer with a solemn face. Holding a plastic box, she dumped dirtied plates and uncleanly forks and knives clumsily, sliding them in quickly and dropping some on the way.

Khione, on the other hand, was scrubbing the floors like her mother, angry at the man who put her in a place like this. _This sucks_, she thought as she almost felt the pressure under her fake nails break.

Not paying attention where she was going, Medea's mind was aimlessly wandering from different thought to different dream. Had she seen a hunched over figure scrubbing at the floor, she would've fumbled and scurried away.

But that never happened.

Medea fell over Khione's form, who in turn had accidentally thrown her scrubber to Christina's direction, hitting the woman directly in the face.

Rachel laughed at the comical sight, clutching her gut and small tears had flowed down her cheeks. Looking from around the corner, Hedge chuckled and went back to work with a smile, making his special strawberry pancakes with whipped cream, no longer an addict of adding salmon to his customer's food.

_Oh, oh_

_Loving you is some kind of wonderful_

_Because you show me just how much you care_

_You've given me the thrill of a lifetime_

_And made me believe you've got more thrills to spare, oh_

**Jason's dad finally came around and got off his Trojan horse.**

Back at Zeus's car-washing business, said man was giving direct orders to his employees. Zeus grinned when he saw his more newer and more refined sign.

"Seventy percent off for USC alumni." he muttered, sipping on his piping hot coffee. Hearing the roars of cars in the background, he grinned a pearly white smile and turned around, seeing more and more customers piling in faster than one could say "Mississippi".

**Things even cleared up for Percy.**

Percy stood in front of a bathroom mirror, turning his head left and right. Examining his skin, he scowled when he saw more and more of the wretched enemy every teenager faced; acne. Frowning when he saw more whiteheads on his skin, Percy picked up a bottle left on the sink. Reading the label, Percy glanced at his reflection, then back to the bottle of acne cream. _Fuck it_, he smeared some of the white cream on his fingers and started to moisturize his skin of imperfections.

About a second later, the scene changed. Not showing his face, Percy turned around with a now clean and acne less complexion. Smiling, he held up the bottle of acne cream up to the camera, "Anything is possible if you just believe."

_This will be an everlasting love, oh yes it will now_

_You've brought a lot of sunshine into my life_

**He ended up filming a commercial.**

The staff and crew of "Believe" acne cream were all smiles and grins to the star of the commercial; Percy Jackson. Giving a round of applause, Percy nodded his head in acknowledgement and grinned a proud grin.

Drew, off on Percy's right, had leaned on his shoulder, smirking and caressing his cheek. The raven haired teen slowly pushed Drew off in disgust and plucked her fingers off his shoulder. Turning his head towards a better and much more favorable face, Percy smiled and slung his arm around Annabeth's shoulders, walking away from Drew and the applauding crowd. Annabeth smiled back and wrapped a slender arm around his waist.

_You've filled me with happiness I never knew_

_You gave me more joy than I ever dreamed of_

_And no one, no one can take the place of you, ooh_

**And in addition to landing that commercial, Percy also landed the girl.**

**The Long Island Valley was clear and beautiful, the way it only is after a big rainstorm.**

_This will be, you and me, yes-sir-ee, eternally_

_Hugging and squeezing and kissing and pleasing_

_Together, forever, through rain or whatever_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you and me_

A lone couple sat on the hood of a light blue mustang, enjoying both the view and each other's company. The brunette girl leaned on the blonde haired boy's form, breathing in his campfire-smoke and cinnamon aroma. Smiling, she rubbed her face into his shoulder, peeking through her eyelashes at the teen in front of her.

The boy, in return, grinned and looked at the bombshell brunette. Blinking he remembered something that was in his back pocket, pulling out a navy blue cell phone.

**As for Jason and me, well, I finally got my cell phone back.**

Piper held out her hand, a quirk of the corner of her mouth twitching, "Give it back."

Jason grinned in return, holding the cell phone behind his back, "Nope."

"Jason, c'mon."

"No way, beauty queen."

"Yes way, sparkie." The brunette had an amused smile on her face.

Jason crossed his arms, holding the cell in his hand and smirked, "And if not?"

"Well then, time for your punishment." Piper coyly said, whispering the last bit in front of Jason before placing her lips onto his. Jason grinned into the kiss, savoring the moment to himself.

As they continued their little make-out session, Piper slyly snaked her arm to reach Jason's hand that held her cell phone. She pulled back moments later when she received her object and grinned when Jason looked a little surprised.

_So long as I'm living, true love I'll be giving_

_To you I'll be serving cause you're so deserving_

_Hey, you're so deserving, you're so deserving_

_Yeh, yeh, yeh, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_Love, love, love, love, love, love_

_Love, love, love, love_

_Love, love, love, love, love_

_Love, love, love_

_From now on, from now on, yeah_

_From now on, from now on, yeah_

**We wound up going to Princeton together and lived happily ever after, myself deciding to be an author. And Jason? He gave up on the idea of writing since he considered himself a "closet poet that loves flying"; pursuing the dream of being a pilot.**

**At least that's the plan, for now. Hey, I'm only a freshman!**

**Moral of the story;**_** Don't give up your goals or dreams, even if times are hard. You'll make it!**_

**Credits' Song; Our Lips Are Sealed By Hilary and Haylie Duff**

Well then, that's it. Its over, I'm glad that you guys liked this and I want to thank ALL of you. I hope you guys have a great day and remember, life is hard, but there is good in it. You just have to find it


End file.
